The Dark Rubber Ninja
by Red Joker 042
Summary: ABANDONED, PM me if you want to adopt! After the wave mission Naruto rethinks life as a ninja and questions his purpose. That stray thought created ripples that changed the entire world be it for better or worse. Now after finding the yami yami no mi and gomu gomu no mi the future is in his hands. Sasu/Saku/Council bashing and NaruHina. Smarter and stronger Naruto. Rated T.
1. Chapter 1: Stray thoughts

**Naruto: The Dark Rubber Ninja**

 **Author's note:**

 **This is my first time at writing fanfiction and it may seem shaky so I will try my best. Please don't flame or just plain insult in reviews because I like criticism but only if it's constructive. Some bits will follow canon and mostly keeps to the canon timeline. I'm not sure how to get a beta reader for this so I had to do my best. If someone knows how I would appreciate it if you told me how.**

Summary:

After the wave mission Naruto rethinks life as a ninja and and questions his purpose. That stray thought created ripples that changed the entire world be it for better or worse. Now after finding the yami yami no mi and gomu gomu no mi the future is in his hands. Sasu/Saku bashing and no decided pairings yet. Smarter and stronger Naruto. Rated M just in case.

 **Jutsu/summons/bijuu: Bold**  
 _Thoughts: Italics  
_ Emphasis in speech: Underline

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or One Piece.**

Chapter one: Stray thoughts

 _Here lies Haku Yuki and Zabuza Momochi  
_

Two graves stood on a hill overlooking the bridge that they fought on for the final time. The Kubikiribocho lay as a marker for Zabuza and Haku. A boy, dressed in a black shirt and black pants, looked at them and recalled the memories on the bridge.

 _Do you have someone precious to you?_

 _When someone protects something that is precious to them that is when they truly become strong._

The words Haku told him at the forest in the morning kept reverberating in his mind.

 _"Why Haku? Why did someone like you have to die?"_ thought Naruto as he looked at the grave, trying to hold back tears. After the events on the bridge Naruto changed far more than he realised. He was still brash but not overconfident after getting outclassed badly by a ninja his age. His loud nature was slowly dying but it's safe to say he didn't change too much or the others would have noticed it.

He kept thinking about Haku's life in the bloodline purges in Kiri and how Haku could still have a kind heart and Haku's strong will to protect Zabuza to the point of taking a **Lightning Blade** for him and also Zabuza's attempt to assassinate the Mizukage. Now that he knew Zabuza was a good man deep down he could guess that his assassination attempt at the Yondaime Mizukage was because the Mizukage was a madman.

 _"Man, even Zabuza didn't deserve to die either,"_ thought Naruto. Even though Zabuza may not have been the most sane kid when he killed his class but he definitely turned over a new leaf later on in his life.

 _"Why thought? Is this all it means to be a ninja? Train, graduate, fight and die. Then this whole process continues again and again for years?"_ thought Naruto.

Then there was Wave. A extremely rich tyrant comes in and attempts to oppresses the people. They fight back and then Gato kills Kaiza and cuts off all hope for the citizens in Wave and force them deeper and deeper into poverty till they lose all hope like Inari.

 _No one can beat Gato so stop trying to play hero and go home._

What Inari said hit him hard but he didn't show it and only reacted after he said that he didn't know hardship. Naruto knew more about hardship than most men will ever known in a lifetime and he had to live it for 13 years. Gato came to wave only a few years back but still the people of Wave had to suffer just as much as he did. But the tyrant got what was coming to him when he backstabbed Zabuza. Also, Inari changed and managed to get the people to rise up again and go down fighting if need be and scared off Gato's hired thugs. They tried to rise up a first time and got knocked down but managed to rise a second time and overthrow the tyrant. What would happen if they got knocked down again? Would they be able to rise again?

 _"Is this just a cycle? All of this, is that all it is? Even if Gato got thrown out would another tyrant come and take his place? Would the shinobi hired be forced to fight as a mindless tool and be broken in a fight against each other when hired by each side of a conflict, and then be replaced by a new one by the village and client? Like when we beat the Demon Brothers they just ditched them and sent new ninjas at us. Is that all we will ever be?"_ thought Naruto in sadness as he gazed at the bridge and the village of Wave.

 _Don't turn away Naruto. This what it means to be a shinobi._

Kakashi's words at the bridge came back to his as he thought more about it. He wanted to turn away from Zabuza's last moments as he was coming to grips about his friend Haku's death and Zabuza's tears as he realised how much Haku meant to him. But he couldn't. He owed Zabuza and Haku that much atleast and looked at the last moments of two great warriors.

Two great warriors. Two great warriors who fought for what they believed in.

"What am I thinking? I can't let all of this be in vain. I swore on my nindo that I would find my own path as a shinobi, well here's mine now. I will find a way to break this cycle. This cycle of suffering, hate and pain. I swear to you Haku and Zabuza that I won't give up and I will find a way to change our world and be great warriors like you two were. I will become Hokage and I will change the meaning of the word shinobi and bring peace to the world and stop this pain. Believe it!" proclaimed Naruto in front of the graves.

With his new resolve and fiery determination he gave one last bow to the graves and walked back to the Tazuna's house.

 _"I will get stronger. Much, much stronger. Strong enough to change the world and bring peace and end all this fighting, pain and hatred. Haku and Zabuza, if you're watching from above then don't worry, I will bring peace. Peace for everyone so that good people like you should have to die so soon in life."_ thought Naruto.

Little did he know that a nine tailed bijuu inside him could hear his thoughts. The seal had been loosened and he was originally trying to set up a mental link between them to trick the dumb brat into opening the seal and when he heard his despair at the life he and his friends will be forced to lead his original plan was to break his will and drown him in despair but then he heard his proclamation of trying to find peace for the world and that reminded him of the Rikudou Sennin.

 _"Naruto. Are you the one tou-san spoke of?"_ thought Kyuubi from the seal. _"No it's way too early for me to tell. Maybe I should visit his dream and see for myself. For now maybe I could kill some time looking in his memories properly. Before I could only see glances and fragments but with the link between us I should be able to see just what kind of a host I'm stuck inside of."_

Those thoughts had a profound effect and changed the way the future would be shaped for better or for worse, but that is a story that has just begun.


	2. Chapter 2: The Fruits of Determination

**Naruto: A new era**

Summary:

After the wave mission Naruto rethinks life as a ninja and and questions his purpose. That stray thought created ripples that changed the entire world be it for better or worse. Now after finding the yami yami no mi and gomu gomu no mi the future is in his hands. Sasu/Saku bashing and no decided pairings yet. Smarter and stronger Naruto. Rated M just in case.

 **Jutsu/summons/bijuu: Bold**  
 _Thoughts: Italics  
_ Emphasis in speech: Underline

 _ **A/N:  
Chapter 1 was just a small preview, here is an actual chapter. I decided to just proofread it myself because its easier but if there are any errors I missed I apologise.**_

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or One Piece.**

Chapter 2: The fruits of determination

Night had fallen by the time he reached Tazuna's house. Tazuna was in the living room drinking in celebration. Every 3 hours or so. For the last 3 days. Needless to say, it wasn't a surprise to see him pass out on the floor as he entered the living room. He went to the kitchen where Tsunami prepared a quick diner of rice and chicken and left it on the dining table with a note saying.

For our number one hyperactive, knuckle headed ninja. :)

He grabbed a set of chopsticks from the kitchen and started to eat slowly, still thinking about Haku and Zabuza. Behind him at the doorway, Kakashi watched in surprise but one of the benefits of wearing a mask is that no one can see it.

 _"He must still be thinking about what happened out there on the bridge,"_ thought Kakashi as he gazed at Naruto's rather abnormal eating pattern. _"Sensei, what would you do if you were me?"_

Naruto finished eating and went to the sink and washed the chopsticks and the plates slowly and with care.

 _"Ok, something is definitely getting weird here."_ thought Kakashi as he was sure he would just eat like a pig, wash the dishes quickly and go to sleep.

"Hey sensei, if you wanted something to eat you could have said something," said Naruto, while still washing the dishes.

 _"Since when could he sense me?"_ thought Kakashi in surprise. He stepped out of the shadow of the doorway, never breaking his gaze at Naruto.

"Nah I already ate enough at dinner, where were you for that matter?" said Kakashi

Silence.

"The graves again?" said Kakashi.

Silence. A tear went down Naruto's eye.

"Sensei, as I was thinking about all this," said Naruto, "I decided my own path."

 _"Path? Oh right at the bridge he said he would find his own path."_ thought Kakashi, "So what did you decide?"

"I thought about how Haku didn't deserve to die, then I thought about their lives and their hardships, and then I thought about Wave and how much they suffered" said Naruto, slowly getting louder and more confident and turned around to face Kakashi, "I decided on my nindo that I will break this cycle. The cycle where good people fighting for what they believe in are forced to die and then be replaced by more ninjas. The cycle where needless hate and pain is created, like in Wave. I want to break this and bring peace to the world, like we did to Wave. Believe it!"

Kakashi stared at the determination in his blue eyes and a ghostly outline of Minato appeared over Naruto. "Sensei?" he muttered softly, that didn't go unnoticed by Naruto.

"Sensei? What does you mean?" said Naruto with a quizzical expressions, as he expected a lot of things to come out of his mouth like praising his dream, mocking his naivety, or more silence but not sensei.

Kakashi quickly caught himself out of his daze and shaked his head lightly. He gave his patented eye-smile and said "Sorry Naruto, for a moment you reminded me of something my sensei said to me. Thats a great dream Naruto and I'm proud of you for thinking that way because not very many do."

"Do you think I can do it?" said Naruto in a low whisper. Truth be told he was scared. He wasn't the smartest or strongest kid in the academy. The village hated him with a passion over something he had no choice over. Is this something that he could actually even do?

Kakashi picked up on the insecurity and worry in his eyes and voice, something he thought he would never see in them. "I know you can" said Kakashi with a strong voice.

"Wh-What? said Naruto as he looked Kakashi dead in the eye.

"Naruto, you may not be the smartest, strongest or most experienced ninja right now. But thats just it, right now. These things come with age, training and battles. You have something far greater, and far more valuable. Determination." said Kakashi with pride. "You have determination and a strength of character that very few ever have. As far as I know it comes once in every generation, in Konoha at least. Someone like you can do anything if they put their mind, heart and soul to it. Have more faith in yourself and you will find a way."

Naruto flushed at the praise, something he rarely gets. He looked down and remembered his promise to Haku and Zabuza's graves. He looked up and said "I will sensei, believe it!" with his classic smile.

"Great, we will be here for 4 or 5 more days to watch over the construction of the bridge and then head back to Konoha. For now you should head to bed." said Kakashi.

Naruto nodded and went up the stairs and recalled something as he reached the top, "Kakashi-sensei, who was your sensei?"

Kakashi was just about to go to his room and he turned back and said "The Yondaime Hokage, you're ideals are like his but you have a lot of work to do if you want to reach his level.". And on that note he closed the door and went to bed.

Naruto climbed into his room and fell asleep almost immediately, thinking about how similar he was to his hero.

 _"The Yondaime, really?"_

 _xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Naruto was lying flat on his face in a sewer. A steady drip, drip, drip noise could be heard. He managed to pick himself up and look around. All around him were pipes. Pipes with blue contents and red contents.

 _"What the heck? Where am I? Why am I in a sewer?"_ thought Naruto as he started to panic a bit, _"Ok calm down, the last thing I remember was going to bed so this is a dream, right. Not exactly my best dream but all I have to do is pinch myself and wake up."_

He rolled up his sleeve and was about to pinch himself when a voice called to him.

 **"...COME...HERE...BOY"**

A voice could be heard and it was coming from a hallway where the pipes were converging into, or were they coming out? Curiosity getting the better of him, he followed the voice. The water level started to rise a bit and a sense of foreboding took over him but he still kept walking on. He reached a large room with iron bars and on it was a piece of paper with the kanji for "seal". Inside the cage a red energy cold be seen, the energy converged and condensed to give the face of a nine-tailed fox.

"Kyuubi" he whispered in surprise and a bit of fear.

 **"So this is my jailor,"** Kyuubi mused to himself. **"Thought you would be taller."**

Naruto immediately sported a large tic mark on his head and said "SHUT UP, I'M STILL GROWING!". His height was still a sensitive subject for him but eating ramen all the time isn't exactly a healthy diet. Kyuubi chuckled at his temper.

 **"You are strange for a human. I had nothing better do considering I'm stuck here and I was looking through your memories. I don't understand why?"** he said to Naruto. _**(A/N The Kyuubi is less of a jerk in this fanfic)**_

"Why? Why what?" said Naruto in a lighter tone.

 **"Why do you bother putting up with those useless flesh-bags at your village? I've seen how lousy they treat you for as you say, "something you have no choice over", which is pretty dumb considering if you wanted you could just free me and I would kill them all. They should fear you, kneel before you or at least worship you for keeping their worthless village and lives safe yet they treat you like scum. Less than scum."** Kyuubi said in a sharp tone **"And yet you do nothing. You could break them with my power. Surely you heard a voice at the back of your head telling you to cut loose and just kill them".**

"Yeah I could but then what?" He said staring into the red slitted eye of the Kyuubi. "I would be no better than them. Hurting them for something they have no control over."

Kyuubi tilted his head slightly in confusion and said **"What do you mean human?"**

"Did they have any control over the fact that they don't know what a seal is? Did they have any control over the loss of lives in your attack? I just want people to acknowledge my existence but is that how I want to be acknowledged. Do I want those who think I'm a demon to feel justified in their actions?" retorted Naruto.

 **"So you're just going to let them treat you like scum?"** said Kyuubi in a sharp tone.

"No! I meant endure, not let them walk over me. I will change their opinion of me and show them that even if I have you in my gut I will fight and die for what I believe in!" proclaimed Naruto as he was inches away from the Kyuubi's cage.

Kyuubi backed away for a bit and shot his claws through the gaps in the bars of the cage but Naruto didn't move and the edge of his claw was millimetres from his face. Kyuubi looked in surprise that he didn't even flinch at this.

"I was standing in the range of your claws since we started talking. If you made me come here to kill me you could have done it already" said Naruto without any hesitation.

Ok, now Kyuubi was shocked, since when did the brat become this courageous or smart even. He looked back at his memories and recalled when Naruto put on the mask of an idiot to hide his true pain, looks like the mask is slipping.

The Kyuubi changed his face from shock to grin and removed his claws. _**"Maybe he's not as worthless as I thought".**_

 **"You're certainly interesting to say the least, for a human anyway."** said Kyuubi. **"What if they don't see the truth and keep treating you the same way?"**

"Then I will just have to try harder. Kakashi-sensei believes in me. The people of Wave believes in me. If they can believe in me then Konoha can see it as well. Believe it! I will become Hokage and make them acknowledge me and I will bring peace." retorted Naruto at the top of his lungs.

 _ **"Yeesh this kid is loud guess he got that from his mom. But no one can say he doesn't have conviction"**_ thought Kyuubi with a small sweatdrop as he thought of Kushina.

 **"Do you really think you can do any of that? Far greater men than you have tried to bring peace and failed, what makes you think you can do it?"** replied Kyuubi in a condescending tone.

"Yeah maybe not" said Naruto in a low tone. "I'm not super strong or smart or lots of stuff."

Silence.

"But since when has that ever stopped me. When I failed the graduation I could have just given up and not tried Mizuki's fake test. I could have given up when I found out that I had you sealed in me. I could have given up and ran away when Kakashi-sensei was trapped by Zabuza. But I won't." said Naruto with a determined tone.

"I won't give up. I never have. Sure I will fail the first time. Then the second time. Then a million times but I won't give up. I will try and try until I break the cycle of hatred. I will keep trying until I die. That's what makes me think I can do it." said Naruto at the Kyuubi.

 _ **"His eyes. It's like I'm looking at tou-san. Maybe..."**_ thought Kyuubi as he looked in his eyes.

 **"What about me?"** said Kyuubi in a darker tone. " **Where do me and my fellow bijuu end up in your grand fantasy of the world? Sealed away like animals and used as weapons and be pitted against each other like caged beasts."**

"No" said Naruto.

 **"What?"** replied Kyuubi in shock.

"I said no. When I said I want to end hatred that meant yours too Kyuubi." said Naruto.

 **"I AM HATRED YOU STUPID MORONIC FLESH BAG"** shouted Kyuubi almost instantly, considering the fact that his previous hosts kept repeating that to him endlessly in their thoughts about him.

"No you're not so stop lying to yourself." said Naruto in a calm tone. "Would a being of hatred have a nice conversation with a "stupid moronic flesh bag" or try to kill me and keep rampaging in its cage".

Silence.

"I will find a place for you. If you promise that you won't hurt anyone for no reason and not attack villages and apologise to the victims in Konoha then I will let you go" said Naruto in an even tone.

Even longer silence.

 **"You would trust a nine-tailed demon the size of your Hokage monument and with near infinite power a chance to be free that easily"** said Kyuubi in a calm tone.

"Yeah, if that's what you want then sure. I will try to free you and the other bijuu and convince the people that as long as you are left alone then so are we" replied Naruto without hesitation.

 **"You can't even convince them that you aren't a demon. What makes you think you can do the same for me?"** replied Kyuubi.

"Didn't we have the whole I will keep trying speech one minute ago" replied Naruto in a snarky tone. It felt good to get one up on him for once.

 **"Shut up brat"** replied Kyuubi with a tic mark.

"Is that all you called me here for?" asked Naruto.

 **"What if I said I could offer you power beyond your tiny human imagination?"** said Kyuubi.

"I would either call BS or ask why you are giving me it in the first place" replied Naruto.

 **"For my own amusement"** said Kyuubi.

"Then keep it. Power is earned, not given freely by grovelling" said Naruto without any hesitation again.

 **"Heh. Kit, I could count the number of humans that have earned my respect on one paw and you are now one of them"** said Kyuubi in a more positive tone.

"Really, who else is on it?" inquired Naruto.

 **"That's a story for another day"** said Kyuubi a little quickly, considering he didn't want to spend all night talking about the Rikudou Sennin.

Naruto narrowed his eyes a bit when Kyuubi cut the conversation a bit too quickly but let it go either way.

"So now what? Do I just pinch myself and wake-up or is there anything else?" said Naruto.

 _ **"The link is still weak. Maybe if I get him to loosen it a bit then it would be easier to communicate with the kit"**_ thought Kyuubi.

Kyuubi gestured to the seal with his claws and drew Naruto's attention to it.

 **"There is one last thing left to do"** said Kyuubi. **"I want you to take off the paper and remove a small section of the seal, this will let me communicate with you a lot easier."**

Naruto got a bit suspicious since the seal is something he probably shouldn't mess with but then again he did say he would try to get the Kyuubi to let go of his hatred and a show of trust would be a good first step. After a few seconds of thinking he then came to a decision.

"Before I do that, I have a question for you" said Naruto.

The Kyuubi perked up his ears to show he was listenting.

"I want to know why you attacked Konoha" said Naruto.

 **"Because I was..."** he started. He was going to say _**"bored"**_ in an arrogant tone but he stopped himself and he didn't even know why.

 _ **"The kit could have just said no to my offer about the seal and treated me like scum just like the other two. He gave me the benefit of doubt, I guess its fair I try the same"**_ thought Kyuubi, _**"for now at least"**_ he added as an afterthought.

"You were?" said Naruto, confused at why he stopped.

Kyuubi decided to be honest with his host. He didn't lose his temper or say he was lying like his other two hosts definitely would have.

 **"I was being controlled by a masked Uchiha who called himself Madara"** he said in a darker and angrier tone.

"Uchiha? Why wasn't anyone told about this? And how can an Uchiha control a bijuu?" asked Naruto.

 **"I take it you were not paying attention in those useless History classes when they went over how Madara used his sharingan to control the bijuu and controlled me to fight your Shodaime Hokage"** replied Kyuubi in anger. Saying the name of that filthy Uchiha made him want to go on a rampage.

Kyuubi continued, " **The sharingan has 4 levels. Do you recall the sharingan that belonged to your sensei".**

Naruto pictured it in his head and remembered the red eye with 3 comma marks and told him what it looked like.

 **"Those comma marks, as you call it, are tomoes and a fully matured sharingan goes from 1 to 3 tomoe. Then there is the final forbidden level of the sharingan. The Mangekyou sharingan. That sharingan can only be obtained by killing a close relative, loved one or a friend and the guilt will allow them to access that level. The Mangekyou sharingan is extremely powerful and has grants the user powerful jutsus. The downside: You will go blind. To avoid this Madara took the eyes of his brother who also had the mangekyou sharingan and inserted those eyes into his own and then with his stolen eyes he didn't go blind. With the hypnotic abilities of the mangekyou sharingan he put me under his control twice! I was forced to do all of this!"** said Kyuubi, his voice dripping in anger.

"Ok then say the sharingan can control you. But the Madara bit makes no sense. How could he still be alive and if he was he would be ancient since he fought the Shodaime. So how could he have the strength to control you? And how come no one else saw the masked Uchiha?" asked Naruto, because he may not be bright but still some parts of the story don't add up.

 **"I don't know either, Madara certainly died at the Valley of The End and I said that the person claimed to be Madara. He could be a student or descendant, though the latter is unlikely since I don't think he had a family. As for how no one else saw him, the Yondaime fought him but he and the ones who saw him are dead"** replied Kyuubi.

"Why do you think he is a student or descendant?" asked Naruto.

 **"He has to be, no one else knows how to summon me. I may be incredibly powerful but even I can't just appear out of nowhere and end up in the middle of the village!"** said Kyuubi in anger at having to discuss this sore topic for this long.

 _"He does have a point. The Kyuubi should have at least been seen approaching the village and his story does seem consistent. I don't want to be like the villagers. If I want to end their misguided hatred then I have to let go of my own. Everyone said I'm a demon and they were wrong. Everyone said Zabuza was a demon and they were wrong. Maybe we all wrong about the bijuu as well. Only one was to find out."_ thought Naruto.

Naruto finally said, "Ok I believe you".

Silence. There seems to be a lot of those tonight.

 **"You do?"** said Kyuubi in a surprised tone. Truth be told he was pretty shocked at his new hosts attitude. _" **Scratch that, kits nothing like his jerk of a mother"**_ he thought and remembered how both Kushina and Mito would treat him, heck he thought about how almost all humans would treat him in this position. They would have said "You're a liar" or "Demon". " ** _You're one of a kind kit, there may be a small amount of hope for your species yet"_** he thought to himself and wished all humans were not as prejudiced as this kid.

"Just because everyone says something doesn't make it true until I see it myself. This whole time you had all the opportunities you wanted to kill me or try to mock my dreams or lie to me but you didn't do any of that. I had to learn how to tell if people are lying when the villagers try to cheat me. They label me as a demon but slowly more people are seeing me as Naruto Uzumaki of the leaf village and slowly everyone will see me as that. I can choose now, just like the villagers, if you are a demon or not. I choose to reject what everyone says about you. You are the Kyuubi, a friend of Naruto Uzumaki of the leaf village." said Naruto with his usual fox grin.

Kyuubi smiled. Not his evil smirk, an actual true smile.

 **"Like I said you are definitely different for a human."** said Kyuubi, **"Friend... never really had anyone call me that before."**

Naruto walked towards the paper with the kanji for seal and Kyuubi stuck out his claw to use as a platform. Naruto smiled and thanked him and climbed on. The Kyuubi gently lifted him to the paper and he removed it.

 **"Ok now be careful. I have some knowledge of fuinjustsu and one slip up and you're toast kit,"** said Kyuubi.

"How do you know fuinjutsu?" asked Naruto.

 **"Again, long story but maybe you should look into the subject if you have the chance. Now there should be a small piece sticking out on the top right corner and if you look closely it should have the kanji for "communication"."** instructed Kyuubi. He didn't want to talk about his mother or Mito considering they were both sore topics and he just couldn't decide who to hate more.

Naruto moved in closer and he could see a tiny pin like object with the head the size of a thumbnail and on the head was the kanji for "communication".

"Found it" said Naruto.

 **"Ok pull it out slowly. And I emphasise the word slowly. Quick warning, it might hurt a bit but I will try my best to lessen the pain" **said Kyuubi with a bit of caution and worry.

Naruto pulled it out slowly and it felt like a bee stung his stomach as he pulled it out.

After it was removed Kyuubi's red chakra surged though a large pipe overhead with the kanji for "sense" and it branched off into five different pipes.

 **"Ok you just removed the seal that stops me from communicating with you. Right now I'm trying to link our senses together so I feel what you feel and right now I may only be able to give you a little chakra but I can still help you out by talking to you if you need something."** said Kyuubi as he tried to hold back as much of his chakra as possible and allow it to enter slowly.

"It doesn't hurt that badly" said Naruto.

 **"Yeah but this is the mindscape. You would feel a bit of pain at first but since this is your mind, if you want to not feel the pain then it happens here."** reasoned Kyuubi since his previous hosts used this place to make his life utter hell.

"So if I want to give you a better place to live in then it would change for me?" said Naruto as he felt bad that his new friend had to live in a sewer.

 **"You would do that for me?"** asked Kyuubi, not really that surprised anymore considering this kid had a heart of gold.

"Ok, from now on you are allowed to decide what sort of place you want to live in while your inside my mind" said Naruto.

As soon as he said that ripples spread in the water as it dried up and the sewer background dissolved into a cave inside a forest. A replica oh his home in the Land of Iron before Madara controlled him and got him stuck in Konoha.

 **"Thanks a lot, kit"** said Kyuubi, in a grateful tone.

Naruto was about to ask his mindscape to leave but before that he said "Ok bye kyu... Wait I'm sorry I never asked if you had a name".

Kyuubi lifted his head up in surprise again but hey its been centuries since he had even used it or said it for that matter.

 **"What makes you think I have a name?"** asked Kyuubi.

"Nah, I just thought kyuubi wasn't the most imaginative name. If you don't then maybe I could try giving you one." said Naruto.

 **"Like how you named your own personal ramen bowl "Supreme Bowl of the Heavenly Ramen"?"** joked Kyuubi.

"I was 6 OK! I can do better now!" shouted Naruto looking embarrassed.

 **"I'm just messing with you kit. I do have a name that I would only give to those that I respect. My name is Kurama."** replied Kurama softly.

"Ok, bye Kurama, maybe I should write yours down incase we meet other bijuu. I'm not that great with names and I might get them mixed up after we meet the other bijuu" said Naruto and his body dissolved into light and vanished.

 ** _"He is the one tou-san spoke of. Its about time old man."_** thought Kurama as he looked at the place where Naruto vanished.

Naruto woke up with a start. The first thing that hit him was pain. Not the sharp pain, a dull sore pain in his eyes, ears, nose and other sensory organs. He sat up and looked out the window. It was still night-time and there was a new moon.

 _"A new moon, a new Naruto"_ thought Naruto as he fell back into bed and ignored the pain he felt.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was around 9 AM that Naruto woke up slowly. The pain that he felt last night was no longer there and he felt as if his senses were heightened.

 _"Woah, I don't remember being able to see so clearly, or smell things like an Inuzuka or hearing so well"_ thought Naruto.

He could hear birds chirping clearly and even the slightest of sounds if he focused. Sadly he chose to try this at the wrong time as at that exact point in time, a pink haired banshee screamed at the top of her lungs. (A/N Naruto doesn't have that big of a crush on Sakura. My guess is one too many concussions from being her punching bag).

"SASUKE-KUN I BROUGHT YOU BREAKFAST!"

Naruto fell off his bed and hit the floor. His heightened sense of hearing had a weakness apparently. A loud pink haired banshee.

 **"SWEET SAGE OF SIX PATHS WHAT IS THAT NOISE!"** roared Kurama in his head.

"Kurama! How are you in my head?" said Naruto.

 **"Kit I made a connection, all you have to do is think of what you want to say and I can hear it. Also I forgot to mention yesterday that since I connected our senses they are heightened to their limits as my chakra flows through. WHAT WAS THAT! That was louder than Shukaku crying when I beat the crud out of him for messing with my stuff"** said Kurama from his head.

 _"That, my friend, is the sound of Sakura kissing up to Sasuke"_ Naruto replied.

 **"Yeesh why on earth did you have a crush on her of all people. I've seen your memories and all she does is yell at you and beat you up for no real reason. She treats you like scum just because everyone else is doing it"** said Kurama, still in shock from the screaming.

 _"I don't get it either. I think back then I just wanted attention, even if I got hurt doing it until it became a part of my mask."_ thought Naruto.

 **"Well get rid of it quickly. I may like you kit but even I have limits. If this keeps up I'm taking over your body and removing her vocal chords. I might even get a medal for public services."** huffed Kurama.

Naruto got off the floor and got dressed in fresh clothes, brushed his teeth, showered and went down for breakfast. As he reached the bottom of the stairs he was tackled into a hug by Inari.

"Naruto-nii-san where were you for dinner, we were worried!" said Inari and let go.

"Calm down, I'm fine. I was just caught up in my thoughts and lost track of time" said Naruto as he entered the dining room.

After he said that there was a mixture of emotions on the people around him.

Kakashi was crying anime tears from his one eye in pride, _"Yes, I've slowly corrupted him. Just you wait Gai, I will have my own mini-me. All he needs is a face mask, an Icha-Icha book, an attitude and cool silver hair"._ He was left to his own thoughts of how make him see enlightenment.

Sasuke grunted in his "I-couldn't-care-less" attitude towards the dobe. He was thinking about how Naruto of all people had the power to beat Haku and how to get it from him.

Tazuna and Tsunami were relieved that he was here now and was alright.

Sakura on the other hand, just got rejected for the 568,987th time by Sasuke and was looking to vent it out on someone.

"NARUTO-BAKA! THATS SUCH A DUMB EXCUSE LIKE KAKASHI-SENSEI'S! I'M GOING TO POUND YOU FOR MAKING SASUKE HAVE TO WAIT FOR YOU TO EAT DINNER" shrieked the banshee as she went over to hit him again.

Naruto easily caught the punch and twisted her arm behind her back.

Now their expressions changed again.

Inari, Tazuna and Tsunami were shocked when Sakura went to hit him for no good reason and felt happy that Naruto wasn't hurt.

Kakashi was exasperated that Sakura kept hurting her teammates, but was surprised that Naruto stood up for himself and got over her.

Sasuke looked a little surprised that Naruto grew out of his crush but was ticked that now she would spent all her worthless time fawning at him.

Sakura was just plain shocked. Since when did Naruto try to hurt her and not just lay down and get hit.

"Listen Sakura, I had a long time to think alright. Thinking about the bridge, Haku, Zabuza and everyone in Wave. I decided to grow up and get over a stupid childhood crush and move on. I tried to be nice to you but all you ever do is hit me, even for no good reason and just because you want to. I won't be your human punching bag anymore so get that through your thick skull." said Naruto sharply to Sakura.

Naruto let go and she tripped over her own feet and hit the floor. Needless to say, new Naruto was shocking the living daylights out of the others.

 _"Well I guess I got part of what I wished for when I took this mission"_ thought Kakashi as this C-Rank/A-Rank was supposed to show his genin the real life of ninjas. So far only one of the eggshells cracked.

"Sorry everyone, I'm going out for a walk for a bit to clear my head. I will be back for breakfast later" said Naruto as he put on his shoes and walked out the door.

On the floor the banshee was thinking to herself, _"That good-for-nothing baka, he should feel honoured to be the daughter of a member of the civilian councils stress release machine. Wait till I tell mom about this"._ A part of her felt a little bad because it felt good being fawned by Naruto but on the bright side all that time will go to winning Sasuke-kun.

The resident emo felt a cold forebording shiver go up his back. _"Itachi...kill me now please"_

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto wandered around the forests of Wave country for an hour or two, thinking about Sakura and it did sting a little in his heart that he hurt someone like that.

 **"Don't feel any guilt about this kit. That pink-haired banshee is a die-hard hater against you and she sucks up to society beliefs, the Uchiha and everything else. She had this coming. Hopefully she will change after this but that's almost definitely not going to happen"** Kurama said.

 _"Yeah I guess. Ok fine."_ Naruto thought and turned around. _"Wait where are we?"_

He was walking around aimlessly with no direction for a while now and had no idea where he was.

Kurama facepawed at his idiot host. _**"Figures, no one can change that much but this is a good opportunity to test something"**_

 **"Kit now that I have access to your senses, you are able to access mine as well"** said Kurama, **"Well I was going to tell you about this when you were going to train in the afternoon, but now might be a good time to try out my negative-emotion sensing ability. This will allow you to sense the emotions of others all around you. This means that no one can get the drop on you and they only way to do it is if they have no intention of harming you at all"**

 _"That sounds really useful Kurama, so how do I do it?"_ asked Naruto.

 **"Try to focus on all of your senses. Do that now."** instructed Kurama.

Naruto did that and heightened all his senses like he practiced in the morning on the bed.

 **"You're a little shaky but this is impressive for a first-timer. this will come with practice. Now you should feel a slight tingle deep in your brain and another in your heart. Can you feel it?"** commented Kurama.

Naruto nodded.

 **"The feeling in your brain is coming from the Limbic system, which is responsible for emotions and your heart, well that one explains itself. Now focus on those and those alone"** Kurama said.

Naruto focused on it and it felt like a rush and he could feel it all. The negative emotions right now are at an all-time low after what happened in Wave so far.

 **"Ok now you should feel familiar auras. Focus on those."**

Naruto did just that and located Sasuke and Sakura 4 kilometres northwest of his location. He could feel Sasuke dripping with hatred as he brooded like an emo and Sakura punching the walls and getting hurt. He sighed in exasperation at his teammates and was going to head back...

Wait what was that.

Out of the corner of his senses he could feel something about 5 kilometres west. It wasn't human but it felt old, immensely old and powerful. It was almost calling to him.

 _"Kurama, what is that?"_ thought Naruto.

 **"I...I have no idea. I have never sensed anything like that before. Whatever it is, it's not alive so we're in no danger from it, probably."**

Naruto decided to check it out. Whatever is in the west, its about to get wild.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

He reached the place that was calling to him and found a small cave. The entrance was hidden by ivy so unless you were looking for it, you would miss it. He cut through the ivy with a kunai and found the entrance to the cave.

The cave was dark and dank but with his new senses he could manage. The cave went deeper and deeper into the earth and got large enough for Naruto to stand properly.

After 20 minutes the cave was the size of the hokage's office or, in other words, 2 times the size of his room.

After about a minute or two of walking there was a stone archway. Above and to the sides of the archway were grey metal walls that looked as if they had been there for centuries.

 _"What is this. This metal was definitely man-made but its no metal I've seen before"_

 **"I think I saw this once, a long time ago, this metal is extremely powerful and you would need superhuman strength to even put a dent in it. I think it was called Kairoseki or Sea Stone material. I do know for sure it's man-made so someone had to have built this."** said Kurama.

 _"Well this archway is the only way through but why go through all the trouble to put the wall around an archway with no lock or anything?"_

 **"Then there is more to the archway than meets the eye so be on your guard. Try throwing something through it."**

Naruto picked up a pebble off the floor and threw it through the archway.

Nothing happened.

 _Ok, well lets try this._

Naruto walked through the archway and as he passed it he could feel something in his head. As if something was just rooting through his brain. It felt a little painful but Naruto walked through the archway quickly and got to the other side.

 _"What was that?"_ asked Naruto, worriedly.

 **"I have no idea. All of a sudden I felt the presence of others rooting through your memories. It happened too fast so I couldn't stop them or try to catch them."** Kurama said in confusion. Nothing about this place makes any sense.

Naruto kept moving forward and saw what was calling to him. He reached a doorway and pushed it open.

Inside there was 1 room about the 2 times the size of the Hokage's office. He felt what was calling to him. On an altar there was a box containing whatever was calling to him. He walked over to it and was about to open it then Kurama's voice rang in his mind.

 **"What are you doing? Are you really opening a box with some sort of old and powerful stuff carelessly like that? Haven't you heard of Pandora's box or something like that?"** asked Kurama, his voice clearly showed worry at whatever was inside this.

 _You're right. Hey look there is an inscription on the wall behind this._

Naruto moved towards the wall and started reading.

 _xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

 _Greetings, whoever you are._

 _My name is Monkey D. Luffy, captain of the Straw Hat Pirates and the Nidaime Kaizokuou. I have no idea what era you are from so I hope at least you can read this. If not then, get an archaeologist because that's how we could read old mystery texts! This stuff should be able to last the tests of time like poneglyphs but we wrote it in our language._

 _I have attained my dream and am about to hand myself over to the marines and let them kill me. Why you ask? I have accomplished everything that I wanted to do and so have my nakama and I wish to see the era of dreams and freedom be born anew. I wanted to leave behind something for us to be remembered by so Robin (archaeologist who can read old mystery texts and smart person) told us we should leave behind our legacy in secret. If you are here then you made it through the archway. Brook, a living skeleton and musician, used his yomi yomi no mi (that he used to come back to life) to leave behind a small portion of our spirits in that archway. I really don't get how he did it and I'm not great at explaining stuff so let's just say it's a mystery power._

 _As you passed through the archway all of my crew looked into your head to see what kind of person you are. If you are reading this then congrats you are the 11th member of the Straw Hat pirates! We saw what kind of person you are and if you were alive right now then you would be a member. A Straw Hat pirate isn't someone who goes around pillaging or stealing gold (Nami is an exception). Its someone who has a dream inside them and is willing to see it come true, that's what we are: A crew of dreams. I haven't a clue what you're dream is because I'm kinda dead right now but if you are here then you're will to make your dream come true is unbreakable. To us it doesn't matter if you're an idiot, drunk, thief, coward, perv, talking reindeer that looks like a racoon dog, demon, cyborg, living skeleton or fishman...yeah looking back now I realise just how awesome my crew is!_

 _So since we're all dead, by the laws of pirating (stuff I just made up as I go along) I declare that all the possessions in the cave are yours. The box on the platform thingy (altar) has 2 devil fruits inside. I dunno if you know what a devil fruit is but to put it simply: it's a mystery fruit that gives you a special power. There should be 2 purple fruits with swirls. The smooth one is my own gomu gomu no mi, if you eat it you will be a rubber man. It sounded lousy to me at first but I became a pirate king and strongest guy on the sea so there! I left behind scrolls on my techniques (I wanted to use scrolls because it makes this place look cooler) so you should be able to master my techniques pretty easily._

 _The other one is the yami yami no mi. Be very careful with this fruit. My arch enemy Blackbeard used this fruit to nearly destroy the world before we stopped him (we're just that awesome). This will make you a darkness human. It sounds creepy but we decided that this fruit was used for nothing but evil, its about time someone uses it for a good cause and if you are here then that person is you. It's not my fruit but after we beat Blackbeard we raided his ship (because he stole all our stuff and we wanted it back) and found that the previous owner of the fruit before Blackbeard had left instructions on how to use it. That was weird considering he didn't use half of what was on this in our fight. He had instructions on awesome moves, and he only used it to overpower people. Yeah he sucked at fighting, I mean the guy cried like a baby in our fight and tried to get cheap shots. What a loser. By eating this first you will be able to eat my gomu gomu no mi because normally a person can only eat 1 fruit but the yami yami no mi is an exception. Be warned (THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT): The fruits taste horrible. Like a mixture of rotten eggs, overcooked cabbage, and dead fish. Good luck eating both of them._

 _Oh and by the way if you eat them you can never swim again but the genius cyborg Franky, Usopp and Robin managed to get rid of that problem for those two. How they did it? Its a mystery to me, I have no clue and I may have fallen asleep when they were talking. You also have a weakness to Kairoseki (the stuff the walls were made out on at the archway) so don't touch that._

 _There are also scrolls on using rokushiki and haki and Sanji's kicking fighting style. These are three devastating fighting styles so use them carefully._

 _Finally to your left you should see my most prized possession. My straw hat. It was a promise to someone I cared about very much and its my promise to you: have faith in yourself and accomplish your dreams and when you finish your dream give that hat to the next dreamer._

 _Good luck,_

 _11th member of the Straw Hat pirates_

 _xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

 **"Its official, today has to be the weirdest day of my life and I lived for centuries kit."** remarked Kurama trying to comprehend what the heck is going on.

 _"Wow this is just weird. I decide what I want to do with my life and my dreams and then everything I need to reach that is here"_ remarked Naruto in surprise.

Naruto reached up to the box on the altar and opened it. Inside were two fruits like Luffy said. _Ok eat the spiky one first_. Naruto grabbed the yami yami no mi and bit into it. He almost threw up at how terrible it tasted but managed to scarf it down. Then he ate the gomu gomu no mi and again nearly puked at how bad it was. After he ate it a note fell out of it. He wouldn't have noticed it until he ate the gomu gomu no mi.

 _"I forgot to mention that you only need 1 bite. Shishishishi!"_

Needless to say that if Naruto was in Luffy's era he would kick him for this.

 **"Whatever you just ate, its altering your DNA. Its also infused with a form of energy I've never seen before. It should be about 5 hours till the changes are done so look around this cave"**

He then went to the side of the inscription and picked up the straw hat. After he put it on it felt...absolutely the same.

 _"Well its probably symbolic or something"_

He then walked over to the side of the cave where he found 3 swords. Behind it was another inscription.

 _Ok lets do this,_

 _I'm Roronoa Zoro, first mate of the Straw Hat pirates and as far as I know for now, the greatest swordsman in the world. I don't do long speeches or stuff so I'm keeping this short and simple. I created the devastating Santoryuu sword style. In my adventures I came across loads of Meito (named swords). The three on the platform are the Shodai Kitetsu, Nidai Kitetsu and Sandai Kitetsu. I always wondered if someone using my Santoryuu with these triplet swords would be awesome. To find out if you are worthy press here._

Without thinking, Naruto pressed the marker and Kurama was about to shout **"Wait".**

Suddenly the three swords shot out of their sheaths and shot towards Naruto. He was about to move out of the way but his feet were stuck to the floor. The swords missed his body and imbedded into the wall.

 **"IDIOT! WERE YOU EVEN THINKING ABOUT WHAT WOULD EVEN HAPPEN IF YOU PRESSED THAT! AND WHY DID YOU FREEZE UP!"** shouted Kurama.

 _"Sorry, I wasn't thinking. I let my guard down after I read that first inscription and I didn't think about traps. And my feet are stuck to the floor but I can feel it loosening"_

As he managed to pry himself off the floor another inscription appeared next to the first one. It said:

 _If you are reading this then you are alive. The trap was to test you. Those swords are cursed and extremely powerful. If you are unworthy and use that sword you will die a terrible death. It sounds like a dumb myth but since it happened about 84 times people got smart and figured it was real. If you are alive then the swords have accepted you. They stuff on your feet that made you stick to the floor was something Usopp made (the super sticky stuff supreme). Or in normal terms, glue. A tray should have opened below this and it has all my scrolls on using Santoryuu. Good luck, whoever you are._

 **"They have to to be the dumbest bunch of nitwits I have ever heard of."**

 _"Hey I'm a part of this crew"_

 **"And how does that raise their average IQ points?"**

 _"Shut up Kurama"_

Naruto went towards the scrolls and was about to grab them when he realised that there are way to many scrolls to carry.

 **"Relax. Remember when I said I know some fuinjutsu. I can at least make a basic storage seal. Just follow my directions and for sealing ink we can use your blood and make it keyed to your blood and it will have to accept your blood to open."** said Kurama.

Naruto bit down on his thumb and let blood trickle down on it.

 **"Ok now make sure your handwriting is good. One slip-up and then boom"** warned Kurama.

Naruto grabbed some empty scrolls in the corner that Luffy didn't use and then he inscribed the seal from Kurama's instructions. It took about 8 tries to get it right but eventually he managed to make 6 working sealing scrolls and 4 sealing tattoos on himself. The six scrolls were for the gomu gomu no mi scrolls, yami yami no mi scrolls, rokushiki, haki, the chef's leg fighting style, and the santoryuu. 3 tattoos on his side contained the 3 kitetsus and there was one on the back of his head hidden by his hair for the Straw Hat just incase. Kurama infused a tiny portion of his essence into the seal so only his host could open the seals.

 **"All right I think we have everything we need. Now lets leave."** said Kurama.

Naruto looked back at the cave and he could feel the strength of his predecessors, his senpais filling him with courage.

Naruto put on the straw hat and entered a new world with an all-too-familiar smile.


	3. Chapter 3: The basics of hard work

**Naruto: The Dark Rubber Ninja**

Summary:

After the wave mission Naruto rethinks life as a ninja and and questions his purpose. That stray thought created ripples that changed the entire world be it for better or worse. Now after finding the yami yami no mi and gomu gomu no mi the future is in his hands. Sasu/Saku bashing and no decided pairings yet. Smarter and stronger Naruto. Rated T.

 **Jutsu/summons/bijuu/creepy inner banshee spirits: Bold**  
 _Thoughts: Italics/writing  
Luffy: Underline and_ italics  
Emphasis in speech: Underline

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or One Piece. Please review and give me advice to improve.**

Chapter 3: The basics of hard work

Naruto left the cave, still thinking about all that he had just read. He then came back to the archway and tensed up a bit. He walked a bit quickly to avoid the headache but as he passed through he could feel his senpais wishing him good luck and all together the Straw Hat crew said "We GO!" in his head.

 **Kit, lets go before I lose my sanity, or whatever is left of it.**

Naruto climbed up the dank, dark cave and used his senses to guide him out. As soon as he reached the mouth of the cave he was hit by warm sunlight.

 _Crud, the sun is overhead. It must be the afternoon. I better hurry back if I want any breakfast._

Naruto raced back to the house and sealed his hat back incase the others ask questions about it and opened the door and he was once again floored by Inari.

 _"Was the kid waiting at the door this whole time"_ he thought, feeling guilty at being gone so long.

"Where were you this time? You missed a meal again!" said Inari worriedly and let go.

"Don't worry, Inari. I was exploring the woods and went caving" said Naruto as he walked into the dining room.

Once again a mixture of emotions were on his team and the families faces.

Kakashi felt like pumping fist and was sobbing with pride, _"That's my student. I'm so proud of you for being late"_.

Sakura's face flashed in anger but caught sight of Sasuke and let out an ear piercing squeal like a pig.

Sasuke wanted to kill her more than Itachi at that short moment of time.

Tazuna and Tsunami were just glad he was here for lunch and were determined to make him stay for it.

"Naruto, I couldn't be more proud of you right now. Keep this up and you will be my favourite pupil." said Kakashi, while wiping tears from his eyes. _"You're going down Gai. My mini-me shall surpass yours. Next step is to teach him the wonders of Icha Icha. I'll wait till he hits puberty and then go for the kill."_

Naruto really wondered if his teacher was the sanest guy in Konoha (he didn't meet Gai yet) for thinking like this but then thats the pot calling the kettle black considering he got drafted into the craziest band of pirates ever. He sat down next to Kakashi (who was still sobbing) and Inari (who was almost sobbing).

 _What is with the waterworks these days?_

 **Humans are weird. I got used to this fact centuries ago.**

Naruto ate his lunch quietly and quickly and tried to ignore the two fountains sitting next to him. Then the weirdest thing happened. He still felt hungry. Really hungry. He grabbed the whole bowls of Teriyaki chicken and Beef and scarfed them down whole in 1 minute. Then everyone looked at him and almost felt sick at how he could eat meat for 7 people in one go. That beautiful silence could only be sustained for a few seconds before.

"NARUTO-BAKA YOU PIG. YOU JUST ATE ALL THE MEAT AND DIDN'T LEAVE ANY FOR SASUKE-KUN." shrieked Sakura.

Naruto was way too focused on the food to notice her. Kurama also decreased chakra flow to a minimum the moment the banshee took a breath to scream. After he finished a whole pot of rice. He wondered why Sakura didn't say/scream something. Naruto finished eating when he realised he couldn't hear anything. Frowning he looked at Sakura and realised Kurama must have cut the chakra flow to his ears and thanked him mentally. When she had to stop to take a breath, Naruto got up from the table and went to the sink to wash the dishes and looked at the group.

"Sorry Sakura, did you say something?" asked Naruto with a deadpan.

After those words left his mouth, Kakashi got up and pulled him into a one-armed man hug and sobbed unashamedly onto his clothes with pride. "He idolises me! My pupil, I couldn't be more proud," Kakashi stated, while crying tears of joy.

Kakashi let go and offered to wash the dishes for making him so happy. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Naruto thanked him and left, saying that he was going to train and would be back for dinner.

As he left. Sakura was in a state of shock, then anger that she was ignored like this. She was always taught by her mother to be the centre of attention so she wore red clothes and had pink hair but Naruto just ignored her. **Who cares about him? Focus on Sasuke and forget the baka. Cha!** her inner self roared.

Sasuke was brooding (he seems to be doing a lot of that, didn't anyone give him counselling after his family was killed?) and didn't really care about Naruto. _"Hmph, the dobe thinks being like Kakashi will make his focus on Naruto. Yeah right, he's a lost cause compared to an elite Uchiha like me"_ and went back to plotting revenge on Itachi (where somehow he gets a godlike hack from the author and beats Itachi and proves he is an elite. Yeah not happening in my fanfic. Oops! Fourth wall break!).

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto left and went into a secluded clearing. He was going to the cave but the archway that can root into his head already gave him a big enough headache. He was more worried about his sudden eating habits and how he is going to work off all the calories from the meat.

 **"Kit. I got good news, bad news and just news. What do you want first?"**

 _"Just news"_

 **"The news is that the devil fruits have successfully integrated into your body and so far so good."**

 _"The bad news then good news"_

 **"Your new meat cravings are from the demand of high calorie foods but don't worry, I'm working on trying to decrease that in your brain but thats going to take a while. You will have to eat meat to stimulate that part of your brain so I can target it before it becomes integrated too deeply. It's just a craving now but it will become an obsession and we can't exactly carry meat that easily and it will hinder you. Also the calorie problem can be fixed by working out past your limits and my chakra can heal you so that you don't die or get crippled from doing that."**

 _"Ok, lets forget about this for now and get to training"_

Naruto opened the scroll labeled Gomu Gomu no mi and started to read but a document fell out of the first scroll.

 _If you're reading this then you ate both fruits hopefully. My name is Nico Robin and I will explain the effects of both the Gomu Gomu no mi and the Yami Yami no mi and how they will interact with each other. I will quickly recap on devil fruits incase you are from an era where they are no longer abundant. If that is true then I believe that these might be lands where the fruits do not appear or are exceedingly rare so after reading this note keep it to yourself to avoid others learning about your newfound abilities._

 _Basically there are 3 major classes of devil fruits. Paramecia, Zoan and Logia and this is with increasing rarity. Paramecia is the commonest type of devil fruit and grants the user a superhuman ability. The class is very general so this could be anything, for example the gomu gomu no mi is a paramecia that will turn your body permanently into rubber but in conjunction with the yami yami no mi that may not be the case as I will explain later. Another paramecia ability would be the ability to be able to generate earthquakes, which the former strongest man in the world could do._

 _Next is Zoan class. This class essentially allows you to turn into an animal, but a specific animal and also allows you to transform into a hybrid between your own species and the species of the devil fruit and gives you the abilities of that animal. Our doctor was a reindeer that ate the hito hito no mi and possessed the ability to speak and other abilities that humans possess such as complex thought processes and hence he could study medicine and become our doctor. This class has several sub-categories such as mythical zoan (e.g. transforming into a phoenix) and ancient zoan (e.g. transforming into a dinosaur) and so on._

 _Finally there is the rarest class, logia. This allows the user to become an embodiment of an element and bend that element to their will. They will also be intangible, meaning that physical attacks will not affect them unless the attacks are from the opposing element or an element with stronger properties that its own (e.g. fire is greater than ice and can damage it but fire is defeated by magma, which is hotter). Sea water and kairoseki should also affect the users but after finding the root of the curse in these fruits we were able to remove them so that they will not hinder our new nakama. Be wary that Haki can stop the user from being intangible so logia users tend to die early from acting rashly with their so-called invincibility. I urge you not to make this mistake. An example of a logia would be the yami yami no mi that you have consumed._

 _It is important to note that no devil fruit is ever useless. It only provides you a base of abilities, it is the user's dedication that will allow the user to use the abilities of his devil fruit to their maximum potential and develop new skills and techniques._

 _The Gomu Gomu no mi is Captain Monkey D. Luffy's devil fruit and from his experiences I have theorised that his body is now completely made of rubber. This was slightly strange as I found that some paramecia could turn their body into the material at will but Captain is always made of rubber. His rubber body can deflect all physical attacks as it will have no effect. Also any attempts to tear him apart or crush him will not work as rubber has the ability to restore itself to its original shape, so with these observations it is possible that the gomu gomu no mi has made a model of his body and slowly adjusted it as he grew and made sure that he will always be restored to his original shape in the event of physical attacks. Additionally, he was able to withstand lightning but that is logical as rubber is an electrical insulator. However he does possess a weakness to piercing attacks as rubber can be cut so Captain had to be cautious in all of his fights and didn't let his invulnerability go to his head. His scrolls should contain the different techniques that he created in his lifetime and I wish you luck in learning them._

 _The Yami Yami no mi is Marshall D. Teach's devil fruit and from my observations in his fights and the data from the previous user of the Yami Yami no mi before Teach, I have made observations and conclusions from this. The eater of this fruit shall become a living black hole. Do not panic this is not as dangerous as it sounds (for you at least). The basic ability of this fruit is to control gravitation. You will be able to draw anything towards yourself and send it to a pocket dimension. After a set amount of time, you will have to release what you have taken in. A normal black hole should suck in any particle and compress and annihilate the absorbed particles, but the extent of this depends on the degree of control over the devil fruit. Teach could only suck in matter and expel it but the matter would not be completely destroyed, rather it would be sent to a pocket dimension of infinite darkness and could drive any victims insane from prolonged exposure. A dangerous ability of this devil fruit would be its ability to suppress other devil fruit abilities completely. Teach barely used this ability to its true potential as it could suck in any ability, including the ability to use haki and I theorised that it could also be used to suppress the strange ability called chakra in these lands however this has not been proven. With good control over the yami yami no mi you will also be able to use the power you have absorbed for a short period of time, however Teach was blinded by arrogance and never capitalised on this ability as it was only temporary and he felt above the need to use such powers._

 _However it does come with its own set of weaknesses and limits. When using the power of darkness the user is tangible and can be struck even without the usage of haki or kairoseki and hence when Teach attempted to draw in his opponents towards himself to engage in close combat he could be struck by the opponent. To suppress passively all the user has to do is touch the opponent physically. With a certain degree of skill (that Teach never bothered to learn) the user can create a field where all powers but the users own will be suppressed. The suppression ability is vague and my research has shown that it comes down to will and/or strength of the user and opponent. If your will is stronger then you will be able to suppress them, if not then there is a chance that it will not work. That chance is always present thus it is a gamble so use this technique after strengthening your body to its limits and have a good understanding of Haki so that you are able to control your willpower and focus it during the usage of this technique. Gravitation is only the base of the yami yami no mi and more abilities are present in the records of the previous user before Teach but they will be slightly difficult to master as darkness cannot be something that can be controlled easily, however they are not impossible to learn as Teach was a very lazy obese man who most likely didn't train properly in using these abilities. You will be able to eat multiple fruits but too much power can be a bad thing and go to ones head. If you do come across any other fruits, I left a small book on identifying devil fruits taped on the back of this document. I also theorise that the curse removal will apply to any fruits you eat since you have eaten two curse free fruits. I recommend that you refrain from using this fruit until you have mastered a good amount of the scrolls as if people see the potential you have they could take at as a threat and eliminate you._

 _These fruits will interact with each other in ways that I cannot estimate as this is the first time that there is a user with both these fruits, however I have come up with likely theories. My first theory is that your gravitational control should be quite high when you start. I mentioned earlier that you are a living black hole so all of your body cells could be ripped apart by the gravitational force from from very prolonged and strenuous use of the yami yami no mi, however as stated earlier the gomu gomu no mi allows the user to withstand such attacks and hence your body will most likely not be torn apart from using the yami yami no mi. Another theory is that you may able to suppress the gomu gomu no mi and have the body of a normal human. Logia users are not intangible passively, that is an ability they must learn to consciously activate it and do it on a reflex when attacked. Research on the yami yami no mi is slightly contradictory as some state that one must use the abilties to become intangible however others state that if you are using the abilities then you are tangible. This led to my theory that the yami yami no mi has a separate ability to be intangible that is different from the other powers. If you have trouble visualising this then imagine that you are travelling on a road and it splits into two. You must make a conscious decision to be intangible at one time or use your powers or you could stop and not choose either (so you are doing nothing with the power), it is not possible to go to both paths. I believe that you will be able to have the body of a normal human if you suppress the gomu gomu no mi, and do not activate the yami yami no mi. This is useful to keep these abilities hidden until you have a good degree of control over fruits can be used together in combination so if you use the yami yami no mi you will have the body of the gomu gomu no mi and will be immune to physical attacks. These are the theories that I have made using all the information on dual-devil fruit users (which are very rare)._

 _I wish you the best of luck in your endeavours,_

 _11th member of the Straw Hat pirates_

 **"Smart, gruesome and patient enough to deal with the IQ of idiots. She sounds a lot like me. She must have been the only one on this crew that could count from 1 to 10."** mused Kurama as he was surprised that this crew of lunatics had someone so intelligent and calculative.

Naruto read and re-read the document several times to fully understand it and put it back where he got it. He then opened the gomu gomu no mi scroll and decided to start training. He opened the first scroll titled:

 _Scroll #1: Gomu gomu no pistol_

 _Stretch your arm back. Keep you knees bent and make sure to push your arm forwards as it comes back and aim for the target. Then step back and keep your body crouched and brace for recoil._

If you watched the anime/read the manga of Luffy's backstory then you know how much this is going to hurt our poor blond hero.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Several hours later...

"Dammit!" screamed Naruto as he hit his face again with his fist. This was way harder than how the scroll made it out to be. After about 17 tries, Kurama could catch his breath from laughing so hard and decided to give the kit a hand, even though this was just comedy gold. He told Naruto about Kage Bunshins and the memory feedback effect so Naruto could learn techniques a lot faster. Then he nearly died from laughter. Seeing 1 Naruto get hit in the face is funny but 1000 Naruto's hitting themselves and each other and getting tangled in a rubbery mess was just too much. Naruto wondered why they didn't dispel when hit until he realised that his devil fruit abilities also went to his kage bunshins and so they had his rubber powers and were immune to physical attacks, which means that these scrolls could be mastered a lot quicker as all he had to do was dispel the clones and the memories would come back to him.

After a lot of swearing and bruises and 3 riots that broke out between the clones they managed to learn that dratted technique. While the clones were learning that, Naruto was exercising well beyond his limits. Why? Kurama warned him that this trick would not work for gaining muscle so he had Naruto exercise really hard until he was driven to the ground.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Somewhere in Konoha, 2 green beasts with bowl cuts, bushy eyebrows and green spandex that were climbing mountains with their teeth and pinkies, looked up at the sky.

"LEE. DO YOU FEEL THIS?" exclaimed the larger one.

"HAI GAI-SENSEI. I FEEL THAT SOMEONES INNER FLAMES OF YOUTH ARE EMERGING" shouted the smaller one, unaware that they were only 20 centimetres apart.

"LEE THIS IS A GLORIOUS DAY, WE MUST FAN OUR FLAMES OF YOUTH TO MATCH THE NEW EMERGING INFERNO" shouted the larger one with tears who was born with unusually sound resistant ears.

"HAI GAI-SENSEI" said the smaller one with even more tears and also possessed the same genetic anomaly in their auditory system.

"LET US GO LEE. TOWARDS THE SPRINGTIME OF OUR YOUTH!" exclaimed the larger one as he continued up the mountain using only his teeth.

"YOUTH!" said the smaller one passionately and followed the larger ones example.

At the top of the mountain a mind-scarring man-hug genjutsu with a beach backdrop and waves could be seen. The unsuspecting citizens of Konoha were just glad that it was cloudy and it obscured the horrors.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After Naruto picked himself off the ground he decided to start trying the yami yami no mi. He took out the scrolls from the yami yami no mi sealing scroll and started to practice.

Technique #1: Black hole

Crouch down then place your hand, open-palmed, on the ground and spread the darkness around you. Brace yourself as you will feel slightly disorientated from being the centre of a black hole and focus the direction of gravity downwards gently. If you place too much force and no direction then you will become a black hole and suck everything into yourself.

Naruto summoned 1000 shadow clones and made sure that they were well spaced out before trying this. This was even harder than that dratted pistol technique but the gomu gomu no mi didn't let his body get torn apart. He practiced by placing his hand on the ground and spreading out the darkness and absorbing rocks, grass, loose soil etc. and then released then from the same hole. Eventually he managed to get it down but he noticed that the clones could not use the yami yami no mi to a large extent. The could use the techniques, but on a smaller scale. His range for Black Hole was 10 metres but his clones could only manage 5 metres at best.

Kurama told him that if he wanted good control then he had to learn to not rely on the gomu gomu no mi saving him so he tried his best to suppress it by consciously making that thought and the darkness swirled around him with black flames. The flames died down and he couldn't feel the rubber in his body.

 _"The time taken to turn it on and off is too long. I got to get faster at that"_ thought Naruto while frowning that it took 10 seconds to do that.

He used what he learnt from the Kage Bunshins and tried the technique repeatedly alongside shadow clones and he slowly managed to get somewhat shaky control over this technique.

After he finished he noticed again it was well into the night and he realised he had been here all day. His jacket was torn from gravity shredding it and also Kurama's insane physical training and his muscles were healing from all the stress he put on them in physical training.

 _Crud. I'm late again._

He packed up all the scrolls and placed them back in their respective categories and dispelled the rest of his clones and raced back to the house.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As soon as he got back he was about to open to door but didn't want to get tackled in this state so he made a kage bunshin and had him open the door. As expected, Inari tackled him with a hug and said how worried he was. The clone quickly dispelled and Naruto original made his presence known and asked not to be tackled as he was extremely tired. Inari picked himself off the ground and looked sheepishly at Naruto and apologised for doing that.

He entered the house and went straight to his room to shower and change clothes because he looked like he came back from 2 wars. As he went downstairs to the dining room Kakashi was waiting for him and asked where he was.

"I was stretching and trying to not get sucked into a black hole" replied Naruto with a deadpan as his face was too tired from getting hit to show emotions.

Kakashi started, "Ok Naruto, I'm being serious here"

He paused for dramatic effect.

"You score 8/10 for creativity but the delivery needs work so I think that is a 4.5/10. Your form however was acceptable and i rate it 6/10. Overall, we have some areas to work on but it should come with practice."

He took out a notebook and started to jot down these different details and started to write a report on current attainment grades and areas to improve on.

Naruto was trying his best to stay in the realm of consciousness as tired didn't even begin to describe how he felt right now.

He replied, "I'm sorry, did you say something?"

Kakashi beamed with pride, "There's the delivery, it's all about timing. Keep working on it and you will reach enlightenment. On an unrelated note, you look like a zombie that ran around fire country, it's good to push yourself but don't go too far." He got up and left back to his room, while crying again.

 _"Kurama, what's with him"_

 **"Beats me. I think he wants you to be just like him.**

 _"He wants me to be a lazy, chronically late perv?"_

 **"I don't get humans a lot. I want to go on rampages but its not like I make you go on** **those.** "

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In a parallel universe a four-tailed Naruto sneezed when he fired a bijuudama at Orochimaru.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto sat down in the kitchen and scarfed down spare ribs and smoked ham and lots of fried chicken. His stomach started to bulge outwards and then he remembered a special technique of the gomu gomu no mi. He sucked in his gut and held it there long enough for all the fat to be stored evenly in different places, ready to be burned off in tomorrows training.

He washed up and climbed the stairs. As in with his hands and feet and anything else that could still move in his body, crawled into his room and tumbled onto the bed and fell into a deep sleep.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto materialised inside a forest. As soon as his feet hit the ground he could feel a familiar presence coming from behind him.

 **"Kit...over here"**

Naruto heard Kurama's familiar voice and walked towards the cave where he lived. When he got there the place was unrecognisable. There was a bed, couch, fridge stocked with rabbits the size of horses, windows, TV, stereo, tables, chairs and other expensive looking furniture and the walls had blue wallpaper.

"Someone's been busy. This place is better than my house." noted Naruto in an amused tone.

 **"Its better than the original place I lived in! My cave didn't have any of this stuff!"** mused Kurama. He was happy to be inside a good host like this kid.

"So why am I here" asked Naruto.

 **"A friend of yours wants to meet you"** replied Kurama cryptically.

As soon as he said that a man wearing a Straw Hat, a red vest, blue shorts with a yellow sash as a belt in sandals materialised and walked towards the duo.

"So you're our new nakama! Nice to meet ya! I'm Monkey D. Luffy, the 2nd Pirate King" exclaimed Luffy as he was infront of the two with his usual grin.

Naruto stood there speechless.

"W-w-wha-what? You're dead, how are you in my head?!" exclaimed Naruto in confusion and panic, because having a nine tailed fox that should be dead inside him is one thing but a centuries dead ghost pirate in his head is pushing the limits.

"Shishishishishi! I'm just that awesome!" exclaimed Luffy laughing at Naruto panic.

Kurama facepawed as he felt a migraine coming on and thought, _**"Dear god, two idiots in one body. Sage of Six Paths why must you curse me so?".**_

"Ok, remember the archway where me and my nakama were inside. Because of Brook's Yomi Yomi no mi he also managed to place a small portion of my soul into the gomu gomu no mi you ate. He did that so I would be able to be with my new nakama!" said Luffy with a smile.

"I already know who you are, Naruto. The big softie back there showed me your memories and dreams. I know thats a privacy invasion but I really wanted to know what kind of person you are" Luffy said in a more serious tone.

Silence.

"Your a Straw Hat pirate, without a doubt!" said Luffy with a smile.

 **"I'm not a softie and you kept asking me 40 times to see his memories in the most annoying ways possible!"** exclaimed Kurama.

"I-I don't know what to say" said Naruto, speechless. He felt guilty that he just took their stuff like that even though he passed the archway so he was allowed to use the stuff there.

"Yeah, yeah you mountain of fur. Anyway you're a ninja, dude that's awesome. Can you shoot fireballs, can you walk on water, can you teleport, can you? can you?..." Luffy started with stars in his eyes and tugging at his sleeves.

 _"He acts like a kid"_ thought Naruto and realised that it's a miracle they survived with a 4 year old as a captain.

"Look I don't know how to do that stuff. I'm a genin, which means I just became a ninja. I can transform, make solid clones and switch myself with another object and I can fight, sort of" said Naruto slowly and tried to get out of Luffy's grip.

"Aww that sucks. Wait clones? THATS SO COOL!" said Luffy with even bigger stars in his eyes.

Naruto and Kurama sweatdropped while thinking how can such an immature guy be a king.

"Hey Luffy are you the only one here or is there anyone else I should know about" asked Naruto as the number of voices in his head was on the rise these past two days.

"Nah, my soul could be bound to the gomu gomu no mi because it was a part of me but not for the rest of them" said Luffy softly and sadly as all his friends are gone.

Naruto noticed this and decided to cheer him up.

"Hey Luffy, don't worry I'm here and so is Kurama to keep you company. Thanks for being with me Luffy, I really wanted to meet you guys. You guys sound like one heck of a crew" said Naruto.

Luffy perked up and gave his classic grin and laughed.

"Hey wanna hear about the awesome adventures we went on?" asked Luffy as he cheered right back up.

"Yeah that sounds like fun" said Naruto as he sat on the floor.

Luffy began to describe his journey, how he started from sailing in a barrel and meeting Coby, to meeting Zoro at a marine outpost, how he met Nami and beat Buggy, how he met Usopp and beat Kuro, how he met Sanji at the Baratie and beat Kreig, how he beat Arlong for Nami, how he met Smoker and his dad Dragon, how he met Vivi at Whiskey Peak, how he met Chopper at Drum and saved his home, how he beat Crocodile and saved Arabasta, how he met Robin, how he went to Skypiea and beat Enel, how he went to Water 7 and met Franky, how he went to Enies Lobby to beat CP9, how he met Brook and how he beat Moria at Thriller Bark.

Then he took on a slightly sadder tone and described how he was beaten at the Sabaody Archipelago. How he met Hancock, his wife, and went to Impel Down and then Marineford to save his brother and failed.

Naruto could feel Luffy's pain at what happened and didn't press on about it.

Luffy talked about his training with Rayleigh before he entered the New World, how he went to Fishman island and asked Jinbe to join his nakama, how he beat Caesar at Punk Hazard and teamed up with Law, how he beat Doflamingo at Dressrosa, how he went to Zou and Whole cake Island and Wanokuni and all over the Grand Line and finally to Raftel. He talked about how he beat the Yonkou and became the king of pirates.

They kept talking inside a cave in a forest with a nine-tailed fox and talked about just anything. That night, Naruto made another friend along with Kurama. Before he left he walked up to Luffy and whacked him in the head.

"Thats for making me eat those horrible fruits when I could have just bit them!" exclaimed Naruto and a bit thankful that he got to hit Luffy for this.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto woke up and felt refreshed from a good sleep. His muscles were alright courtesy of Kurama's healing chakra and he made sure to turn off the chakra to his ears incase of another banshee shriek. His nose picked up a scent from outside the doorway. He opened the door and found a tray of food with lots of bacon, sausages and ham and his shoes neatly together in a corner, mended and with a fresh pair of socks and a sealing scroll. A note was attached to it from Tsunami saying:

 _I brought you breakfast but you were still asleep so I left it here. Your "delightful" pink haired teammate is on a shrieking warpath so I brought your food here and your shoes as well so that you can go out the window to train and avoid her. Goodness knows how you can still sleep with all this noise. I also made you lunch and was about to pack it when your sensei came by and made this scroll to hold your lunch instead._

 _Take care,_

 _Tsunami_

Naruto smiled at this and showered, brushed, ate breakfast, changed into new clothes and left out the window into a new day.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto left and came back to the same clearing, which was barren after he kept removing grass, rocks and sometimes nearby trees and chucking them randomly.

"Ok this time I'm going to try out Sanji and Zoro's fighting styles"

 _"Ehh! What about my gomu gomu no mi?"_ asked Luffy.

 _"Did that yesterday and managed to get your gomu gomu no pistol down, I want to try something new"_ thought Naruto.

 _"No way! It took me months to learn that!"_ exclaimed Luffy in surprise.

 **"Kit used his clone jutsu. It's a special jutsu called Kage Bunshin no jutsu and with it he makes solid clones and has them practice with him and then dispels them and whatever they learnt, he learns as well. So something that should take months, he can do in hours with a load of clones"** explained Kurama.

"I don't really get it, but I get it, I think." said Luffy in confusion, "Do all ninjas do this?"

Naruto perked up and paid attention as he never thought that others could do this as well.

 **"No. This would only work if he has a load of chakra because the Kage Bunshin no jutsu requires huge reserves and even then those people can make kage bunshin can't make as many as you or hold the technique for long. Naruto has me inside him so if he's running low I try to send my near infinite chakra to him so this is unique to only Naruto. There is also a memory overload where your mind would shatter from all the memories you get but I filter and sort out the memories and only let in the important ones slowly."** explained Kyuubi.

Naruto nodded and opened up the scroll with Sanji's chef leg fighting style and this time there was a short note on the first scroll.

Picking it up he read:

 _Hey whoever you are,_

 _If you are reading this then I guess you must be the 11th idiot on our crew. Heh, even from the dead we're still alive. I'm Sanji, the chef for the Straw Hat pirates (more specifically for Nami-swan and Robin-chwan and leftovers for the rest of the idiots), and discoverer of All Blue and a hit with the ladies! The chef leg fighting style is way better than some dumb swords or rubber and can be devastating to your opponents. It follows the name so its solely made by kicking. A chef can never damage the hands he uses to cook so he can only fight with his feet. You will need to train extensively in kicking techniques to be able to use my style. For the record there are actual moves and katas unlike what the marimo always says, so learn these first. The power behind the kicks is something that will come over time. I kinda did wonder a bit about what would happen if you could combine Luffy's fighting style with mine and marimo's so I guess you're going to be just that. With this style be careful when trying my Diable Jambe, it's seriously a bad idea to try until you have trained at least a few years with your legs and if you do have to use it in some emergency, like I did, then it's gonna hurt. A lot. I also included in this copies of Newkama kenpo fighting course meals. These are meals, which are designed to make your body stronger by supplementing the right nutrients. If you're going to learn the chef fighting style or any fighting style of mine then it's important to get the right nutrients for it and become a good cook. And plus the ladies love a man who can cook!_

 _Good luck,_

 _11th member of the Straw Hat pirates_

 _"Are you serious, Sanji? I could beat you any day of the week!"_ said Luffy, while laughing.

Naruto placed the note back at the top of the scroll and took out the first few scrolls, containing katas and training regimens to follow to learn his fighting style. He then created his usual army of shadow clones with the gomu gomu no mi active and started on working with those katas, while Naruto did leg-ups, kicks on a tree trunk repeatedly and practiced a few of the moves on the scroll.

It was midday when Naruto started to feel hungry and decided to open the scroll. A loud poof could be heard and as the smoke cleared he saw fried rice with chicken and roast lamb.

 _"MEAT!"_ roared Luffy and then in Naruto's mind another one of his craving urges almost took over.

"Wait, my meat cravings are from you! That's why I keep having to eat meat!" said Naruto angrily, considering that in his mind Ramen was no longer his number 1 dish.

 _"Oh sorry my bad, I just really like meat so much that I may have done that accidentally"_ said Luffy looking a bit embarrassed.

" **Well now that I know where the craving comes from exactly, I can get rid of it by the time you get back to Konoha** " said Kurama.

 _"WAIT! What about my meat?"_ pleaded Luffy while crying.

 **"IDIOT. This is the mindscape. If you want meat so badly just think about it!"** Kurama yelled back.

 _"I tried that already, I can't do it like you do,"_ Luffy rebutted angrily.

 _Oh right, I didn't_ allow _you access to change my mindscape. Ok from now on Luffy you can change my mindscape as you please but don't go too crazy. I don't want to see a mountain of meat when I go there!"_ thought Naruto

As soon as he said that, Luffy summoned giant giant pieces of meat and jumped onto it and started to eat with a smile on his face and his cravings lessened slightly.

While that was going on, Naruto ate his lunch quickly and read through some of the recipes of Sanji's alongside his clones who were reading other recipes of Newkama Kenpo as well. They sounded absolutely amazing but it looked complicated and requires practice to learn. He made a mental note to try cooking these meals when he gets home because if he tries it here then the others (more specifically Sasuke) would find out about all his scrolls and demand to take them. He would say no and Kakashi would back him up but then he would have to deal with Sasuke trying to steal them with his sharingan and Sakura screaming about giving the scrolls to her "Sasuke-kun". Yeah not worth it.

As he finished lunch, he opened Zoro's scroll and made sure to open it away from him incase something else tries to kill him. Again a note fell out of this and he picked it up. It read:

 _Hey you (whatever your name is),_

 _Looks like your trying to learn Santoryuu, yeah good luck with that. I had idiots either challenging me with a dumb version of my santoryuu or just begging me to learn it. I mostly cut them up and kicked them out of my house. Since you got through the archway I know you are worthy of learning this and if you're reading this then the swords think so too. Take this seriously because this isn't some cute trick like being made of rubber or useless fighting style like the dartbrows. Basically Santoryuu is dual-wielding with another sword in your mouth. It sounds a bit weird but I sliced mountains with this so don't mess with it. I placed the katas I created into those old-timey scrolls and some other stuff in there such as sword treatment and maintenance tips, the honour code of all swordsmen (READ THIS) and also ventriloquism because it's hard to talk with a sword hilt in your mouth. It is also valuable to know Ittoryu and Nitoryu skills and I wrote down some of those as well. Always value your honour as a swordsman even if your opponent doesn't and don't get any nicks or scratches on the blade, that will be your greatest shame along with wounds on the back so read the maintenance first before practicing with these swords. The blades are designed to cut and go for the kill. My sandai kitetsu was really bloodthirsty because I was worthy but not perfect. If you're alive then you are the one they all choose. A stroke of the sword can't be taken away so don't hesitate or you will die. The swords can channel haki as well so learn how to do that when going through that._

 _I wish you good luck my fellow swordsman,_

 _11th member of the Straw Hat pirates_

" _Why does everyone keep making fun of the rubber. I am so kicking his butt in the afterlife for this."_ said Luffy with a tick mark on his forehead.

Naruto unsealed the three swords and felt a warmth flow through his skin as he touched the hilt of the swords. He took out the shodai kitetsu, which felt unbreakable, in his left hand and the sandai kitetsu, which felt light, in his right hand and the nidai kitetsu in his mouth, which was a balance between both. He then had to suppress a gag reflex from having something so big in his mouth but Kurama was helping him with that problem. He moved the swords in his hands and made a cross sign for the **kage bunshin no jutsu**. Immediately a lot of Naruto's poofed into existence with three swords in their mouths.

 _"Woah there are so many swords! Are they real?"_ asked Luffy with stars in his eyes at the cool cloning trick.

 **"Nope. Kit, they are essentially a kage bunshin of the swords. Normally you would need chakra conducting metal or know the kunai or shuriken kage bunshin no jutsu but since there are copies of the sword that means that chakra can flow through them as you performed the technique. They will still dispel if hit like a normal kage bunshin"** said Kurama in his explanation mode.

"I am loving these swords already!" said all the Naruto's in unison but all that came out is a muffled noise.

The Naruto kage bunshins that was reading the maintenance scroll, honour scrolls and ventriloquism scrolls dispelled and transmitted the information to the others. Naruto kage bunshins also went through how to hold and wield a sword and the bare basics so you don't cut yourself. He went through all of these and mastered the basics and also a few of the katas.

By the time he was done the sun was setting and his body was exhausted again but at least all his clothes were in one piece. He headed back to the house for a good meal and some rest.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When he got back he opened the door and, to his surprise, found his teammates waiting for him.

"Where were you the whole day? You can't just go off disappearing like this BAKA!" said Sakura angrily.

The emo prince scoffed at how tired he was and reminded himself that he was an Uchiha so he only needed his Sharingan, which he finally awoke.

"Dobe, what do you think you can accomplish by doing this. You're still dead last, all you are now is more dead and the last one here" scoffed Sasuke.

Sakura laughed at his terrible pun and Naruto too tired to care kept his deadpan and said "Does my face look like it could care less. Be honest, I'm trying to make it even more so."

Inari, who was watching this laughed for real and Sasuke gave him a glare and he ran off in fear and turned to Naruto.

"Dobe, I demand you tell me how you beat that Ice ninja" ordered Sasuke.

"And why should I do that, oh almightly last Uchiha?" replied Naruto in a sarcastic tone.

"Isn't it obvious, so I can copy it with my sharingan" he said as he activated his eyes.

 **"Kit you have a few seconds before I go nuclear and shred him limb from limb"** growled Kurama.

 _"What should I say? I can't tell the prick the truth. If I do then he will ask something stupid like "give me the demon, dobe""_ thought Naruto.

 **"Lie. Duh,"** replied Kurama.

 _"What should I say? Luffy, any ideas?"_ thought Naruto.

 _"Umm...I wasn't the greatest at lying or keeping secrets and stuff. Sorry"_ replied Luffy in a quiet tone while sweating furiously.

 **"What kind of pirate can't lie!"** Kurama yelled at Luffy.

 _"Hey I was good at beating people up. Other stuff not so much. And hey, either give an idea or shut up you mountain of fur!"_ yelled Luffy back at the Kurama.

 **"Fine. Uhh...say that Haku got chakra exhaustion and you won with a Kage Bunshin swarm."** replied Kurama somewhat lamely.

"Dobe tell me NOW" yelled Sasuke, tired of having to wait for something.

"Uhh, Haku got chakra exhaustion from using that mirror jutsu and I got the drop on Haku with kage bunshins" recited Naruto and repeated what Kurama told him.

"There was that so hard" mocked Sasuke, "Wait how did you make kage bunshins when you were exhausted from fighting?"

 _"Crap, a little help here guys"_

 **"Is rip him limb from limb an option?"** asked Kurama in a hopeful tone.

 _"Sadly, no"_ replied Naruto

 _"Just say that in the fight you pushed all of your chakra in to the cloning thing, that might work."_ said Luffy, wanting to help his nakama out.

"When I came to, I saw Haku getting tired and put all the chakra I could muster into the **Kage Bunshin no jutsu** and managed to overpower Haku" replied Naruto and tried Luffy's idea.

"Good, it seems like it was worthwhile to save your useless life. Now show me the **Kage Bunshin no jutsu**. A jutsu like that belongs to an elite like me." Sasuke demanded in his typical Uchiha tone that he learned from his father.

 _"That's why he saved me. That jerk"_ thought Naruto in anger.

"Um. How about? No. Nah thats not right, more like never Uchiha-teme" said Naruto barely containing his anger and going back to his old nickname of him.

"NARUTO-BAKA, SHOW SASUKE-KUN HOW TO DO THAT NOW OR I WILL POUND YOU!" shrieked Sakura as she moved to pound him.

Naruto made a seal less Kage Bunshin (from way overusing this technique to the point of mastery) behind Sakura and kawarimied with it and Naruto-bunshin burst into smoke and this caused her to trip over again and fall flat on her face.

"Did you catch that teme?" asked Naruto in a voice dripping with sarcasm.

"DOBE! How did you do that! I couldn't copy it!" yelled Sasuke in anger that the dobe found a way to cheat the sharingan.

"You have to copy hand seals and from that see chakra flow. No hand seals means no copying my dear teme" mocked Naruto. Kurama explained more details of the Sharingan and how to get past it from his experiences with Uchihas.

"Why you!" Sasuke said as he moved towards Naruto with a kunai.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" yelled Kakashi as he made his presence clear from the doorway.

"Kakashi-sensei, Naruto-baka did this! He tripped me for no reason and was rude to Sasuke-kun" Sakura immediately said to Kakashi.

"I may have one eye but I'm not blind Sakura." Kakashi immediately replied in a harsh, authoritative tone. "You launched an unprovoked attack on a fellow Konoha ninja and you attempt to falsify information to a superior officer. I already had words to you about this but if you keep this up I will confiscate your headband. Am I clear!"

"Y-y-yes" Sakura stuttered. **"Cha! Why are we in trouble, if Naruto-baka had the brains to do something useful with his life like helping Sasuke-kun then none of this would have happened!"** yelled Inner Sakura from inside her.

"And you Sasuke" said Kakashi as he turned onto Sasuke. " You are found to be attempting assault on a fellow ninja. You demanded a jutsu from a comrade. Your own clan set rules when the village was founded that they would not use their sharingan to copy jutsus of any fellow ninja. Apparently a clan of thieves needed this rule to keep their prying eyes in line. One you are clearly overstepping. If you do steal a jutsu from a fellow Konoha ninja then by the laws your clan created, you will be disowned and lose all rights to access the Uchiha compound and accounts."

"What! That is nonsense! All other ninja should be on their knees being grateful that they have some use to the Uchiha! As the Clan Head of the Uchiha I remove those laws. As for the dobe, I will be doing the world a favor cutting dead weight that holds others back." yelled Sasuke back at Kakashi and feeling smug that he had outwitted the lazy jounin.

Kakashi chucked and Sasuke looked at him in bewilderment. Kakashi said in an even tone, "Sorry Sasuke, but a Clan head must be above 21 and be a jonin. Then they have to be vetted by the Shinobi council, as in the one that doesn't serve at your beck and call. And finally the right of succession from your father would pass to Itachi as he is the oldest son of Fugaku and among us in the living world so that trick won't work Sasuke. And as for Naruto, remind me who beat Haku and who got turned into a human pincushion and lived out of mercy from the enemy?"

Sasuke was livid that he was outwitted by an outsider on his own clan matters and compared to the dobe of all people. He glared at Kakashi and Naruto and walked back to his room and thought venomously _"Just you wait dobe, cyclops, I will take all you have and use it to kill Itachi"_

Sakura, being an ever loyal fan-girl, followed Sasuke like a dog.

 **"I give the cyclops 12 respect points. That Uchiha just got burned"** snarked Kurama, happy that cursed clan was put in their place.

"Well that went terribly" said Kakashi in a slightly more concerned tone about the team dynamics. What they were doing was wrong, but his team looked more broken than ever. _"For the record the team looked ok on paper so I am so shoving a **Lightning blade** up the idiot who filed the reports"_

(In prison, Mizuki sneezed)

Back to wave, Naruto was wondering what the heck is wrong with his team mates. One is an obedient bipolar fan-girl and the other is a constantly brooding emo with no conscience.

 _"How can you call them nakama or even team-mates! Naruto, don't let them get you down. You still have the cyclops and he is still cool. It will get better soon but for now watch your back because they certainly won't be"_ Luffy spat angrily as this went against everything he stood for and these two were no better than the nakama - backstabbing monsters that he fought.

"Tsunami-san prepared dinner for us Naruto. I'm guessing his royal highness and his followers are skipping the meal so lets get to dinner." said Kakashi and he gestured Naruto towards the dining room.

They both ate dinner in silence and washed the dishes and bid each other goodnight and went to bed.

 _"With teammates like these, who needs enemies?"_ thought Naruto as he fell asleep.

(All members of the Akatsuki sneezed simultaneously. Their "god" told them one of their targets was trembling in fear as they thought about Akatsuki)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto woke up early this time and got dressed quickly, brushed, showered, changed clothes, grabbed some food from the fridge and left a note and left quickly.

He raced to the clearing and practiced using his gomu gomu no mi to stretch and grab branches and swing from tree to tree and also tried using his new leg power to reach the clearing quickly.

 _"Ok today is the last set of scrolls, rokushiki and haki"_ thought Naruto.

 _"Wait Naruto. Don't try Haki yet. Learning haki isn't as easy as it sounds. It is extremely complex and will take months to learn and futhermore you haven't learned to tap into your spirit. Learning haki at this stage is a dead end and Rokushiki is harder than it sounds so that will take the whole day to touch on"_ said Luffy.

 _"Ok, Luffy"_ thought Naruto

 **"Kit, the Uchiha brat and his pet are searching the woods, no doubt to find out where you are and what you are doing. I can sense them wandering the forest,"** said Kurama in his head as he used Naruto's senses to check for their presences.

 _"I have an idea"_ thought Naruto.

He created around 100 kage bunshins and they left the clearing.

 _"Those will be decoys. They are going to run around the forest and lead the Uchiha and the banshee on a wild goose chase and lead them away from the clearing. They won't use their gomu gomu abilties, only speed from training. Once they figure out that they are clones then they will move randomly to mess with them"_ thought Naruto and inwardly smirked as he pictured the both of them running around chasing kage bunshins.

 **"You have the mind of a fox, kit. Or a fox in your mind. Whichever you prefer,"** said Kurama as he smirked at the thought of this.

Naruto smiled and got to work on the rokushiki. As he opened it again a note fell out.

 _Greetings,_

 _This are the final records of the Cipher Pol. or CP. We wish to explain how these scrolls came into the possession of the Straw Hat pirates._

 _Upon capture of the fugitive from justice, Nico Robin, the Straw Hat pirates pursued after her and helped her escape from justice. Due to the incompetence of our director, Enies Lobby was destroyed and so was CP9. We escaped and sought the aid of the supreme rulers of the World Government, the Tenryuubito and became their arms and legs as we were reborn as CP0._

 _However at the reverie, a sacred gathering of the world leaders and the Tenryuubito, we were humiliated again by the Straw Hat pirates as we were defeated a second time by them and we were forced to be put to death so that the World Government can wipe their fingers clean of us and claim that we were acting as a rogue terrorist cell as we undertook missions in the darker side of the government. As we were brought out into the open so was the darkness of the World Government so in a last ditch attempt to save themselves, they officially stated that we were a terrorist group that was attempting to destroy their reputation by claiming to act on their orders._

 _As a last act of defiance against the government for tossing us away we had a vote as a team and decided to give these scrolls to our and the World Government's most hated enemy, the Straw Hat pirates. This scroll was to make sure that all the hundreds of years of work of countless agents and fighters could be passed on and not die with us. We have placed everything that we know in these scrolls and hope that they will live on._

 _End message._

 _"Wow, for enemies they weren't that bad"_ thought Naruto.

 _"A little respect for your enemies can go a long way. We could have killed them at our first fight but we didn't and if we did then we would never have these scrolls so think about that the next time you fight. We could have killed them at the reverie. We could have just turned our backs on these guys when they gave this to us, all of them except the pigeon guy, had a change of heart so I couldn't turn them away."_ Luffy said seriously.

 **"Luffy has a point. But be careful on who you choose to spare. Some enemies will be acting on orders to do something and you may be forced to kill them for your objective. Don't feel guilty about it because your enemy knew what he was risking when he challenged you to a fight. But there are some twisted madmen who will cause the suffering of millions. They reek of hatred and are irredeemable. Those men have to die or be imprisoned for life because if they are not then millions more will suffer. Also a lot of good men had the same dream as you turned into monsters and destroyed innocents for the greater good of peace. That is tyranny and they went down a path when they slowly became killers and started to kill everyone who stood in their way instead of trying to save their opponents. You have to be just but you can't always save everyone. Remember that. "** said Kurama in an equally grave tone.

Naruto thought deeply at what Kurama and Luffy told him. He remembered Haku and Zabuza, who fit into the category of "under orders" but a swine like Gato, who was the personification of greed, definitely would just run away and start the same chain of hatred in another land that can't fight back.

Putting those thoughts aside for now he opened the first scroll titled:

 _Rokushiki #1: Soru_

 _Soru is a high speed technique that will give the appearance of you disappearing and reappearing at a different location. This is done by pushing on the ground multiple times in the blink of an eye and allows you to travel at high speeds. This should not be attempted without proper leg strength._

Naruto summoned another load of shadow clones and started practicing Soru.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 _"You're picking it up rather quickly"_ noted Luffy, as he watched Naruto succeed at Soru by accident on his 19th try. Then he crashed into a tree. _"Maybe I spoke too soon_ " said Luffy while laughing.

As the sun went down Naruto managed to learn Soru but had little control over where he was going. Kurama told him that at such high speeds that is expected and should come with practice and he can channel some chakra into Naruto's eyes to help him see better.

Naruto quickly packed up the Rokushiki scrolls and dispelled all the clones that Sasuke and Sakura were chasing. They noted how terrible they were at stealth and that Sasuke had his sharingan active the whole time but the clones didn't use any moves or techniques so Sasuke didn't copy anything so he couldn't get in trouble for it.

As he went back home, he got some of the good memories from his clones who got bored of waiting for Sasuke and Sakura to catch up so they put a few traps and pranks for them. Kurama was on the floor when he saw Sakura get hit by fake dog poop and fell on the floor screaming the she was dying. Then there was Sasuke falling into a pitfall trap with rubber snakes the clones got from the village and heard him scream like a little girl, good thing one clone had the sense to bring a camera to record this and placed it in Naruto's room before he dispelled.

As Naruto entered the house he was trying his best to not fall on the floor laughing. There was Sakura with her forehead brown with fake dog poop (it was just some soil) and body wrapped in toilet paper and legs tied together with ninja wire soaked in honey. The emo had his hair and face painted orange and green and lost his pants god knows where (not like the banshee was complaining) with post-it notes saying "kick me" on his shirt (that might explain why he was sitting on an ice pack) and was using mouthwash and from what the clone memories told him, he apparently swallowed a stink bomb.

Kurama and Luffy however had no such restrictions on trying not to laugh and were on the floor in hysterics.

As Kakashi entered the room he gave a patented eye-smile and asked, "Could you explain why you were chasing Naruto with your sharingan, Sasuke?" he asked in a sweet tone.

"Look at what he did to me! I demand you arrest him for assault," gurgled Sasuke, with his mouth full of mouthwash.

"Maa, Maa, Sasuke-chan. I was just training my endurance and testing the endurances of my kage bunshins. I was also testing out my trap-making speeds and skills with limited resources. It was just training and you tragically got hurt as you wandered around the forest. Maybe you should have taken a hint after the first few traps but I can't control your sudden urges to take a stroll in the forest and stalk me. I know I'm amazing but sadly I don't swing that way, Sasuke-chan," mocked Naruto in an equally sweet tone.

Kurama and Luffy were literally choking for breath as they watched what was happening.

"Your right my prized pupil. I am proud of you for taking the incentive to train so hard. Keep up the good work!" finished Kakashi with his thumbs up pose and eye-smile and ruffled Naruto's hair.

Sasuke growled in anger and stormed over to the fridge and took some food from it and went to his room to brood. Again his ever loyal fangirl followed his example and glared daggers at Naruto for having the nerve to say Sasuke was gay.

 _"I'm really running out of ideas on how to bring this team together. So far the only ninja on this team is Naruto,"_ thought Kakashi in disappointment. "Naruto, any ideas on how to try to get these two to open up?" he asked hopefully.

"Maybe we should try some training, we only have 1 day left before the bridge is done and it might kill some time...?" replied Naruto, hoping that the lazy jonin will actually do something.

"Well, I don't have any other ideas so I guess that's something to try" said Kakashi, "I already had dinner Naruto, goodnight." And on that note he went to his room to try and relieve the oncoming migraine.

Naruto went to the dining room and asked Tsunami if he could have some of the meat in the fridge. Tsunami was glad that someone asked before taking the food she worked to prepare and smiled and said yes (even though Naruto would probably eat everything in the fridge other than the vegetables). He grabbed some ham and pork chops and devoured them quickly. He walked back up to his room and fell asleep wondering about Kakashi-sensei's training.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto woke up with an early start and got prepared quickly and went down to eat. He wasn't he only one as Sasuke was there, smirking that Kakashi was finally teaching something and he could put the dobe in his place. Naruto grabbed as much bacon and sausages as he could get and ate them quickly, Sasuke was trying the same thing to try and weaken him but Tsunami gave Naruto meat separately so he ate his eggs and inwardly seethed at the fact that Naruto was getting preferential treatment that should go to him.

Kakashi came down and had some toast and scrambled eggs with a side of fruit and by 7 AM they were ready...wait where's the banshee?

Kakashi sighed and told both Sasuke and Sakura last night that there would be training and he would like to start early in the morning. Sasuke frowned that the useless pink haired teammate was slowing him down and Naruto was stretching while he was waiting.

A sudden shriek could be heard and it sounded vaguely like "IM PUTTING ON MY MAKEUP". At that point Kakashi snapped and dragged her out and sharply told her off for wasting everyones time and gave her some sandwiches to eat on the way. After she washed her face the four of them left the house.

Kakashi took them to a small river in the edge of the forest and told them to take off any valuables and their ninja tools and leave them at the bank.

"Ok now we are going to learn water walking. This is an advanced version of the tree-climbing technique that we learnt before and this is not a jutsu, its just chakra control so put the sharingan away Sasuke," he told sharply.

Sasuke looked disappointed that he couldn't get this over with and learn some jutsus but did it anyway.

"To do this you must channel chakra to your feet and be able to vary it without thinking to match the water on the surface as it moves. Good luck!" he added and went back to sit behind a tree and watch them get soaked.

Sasuke and Sakura walked forwards onto the water to try this. Sasuke got 2 steps before he fell into knee deep water and Sakura got 5. Naruto was about to go but Kurama decided to add his two cents of advice.

 **"Kit the trick to this is not to rush it. Put one foot on the water and when you feel it stick, take it off and do the same for the other leg. Keep this up until you feel comfortable with it and then try walking. It will be harder for you since you have huge reserves and very little control so make some kage bunshins to help out."**

Naruto mentally nodded at Kuramas advice and made a couple dozen kage bunshins. He then had each of them place their right leg on the water surface and then the left and kept alternating between the two.

Kakashi looked surprised that Naruto found out about the trick with kage bunshins and decided to ask and even more surprised when they didn't all rush into the water.

"Naruto when did you find out the secret to the **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu** " asked Kakashi as Naruto was changing way too fast by himself and there was something going on here.

Sasuke and Sakura perked up when they heard about some secret.

Naruto, with a little quick thinking by Kurama, Luffy and himself, said, "I got the memories of the traps I set yesterday from my clones and then I realised whatever the clones do I learn as well. So if I have clones doing the same thing then dispelling I can learn faster" replied Naruto.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes a bit but the story was believable but didn't explain why Naruto didn't rush into the water.

Sasuke was furious that no one told him that Kage Bunshin could do that and he couldn't copy it in front of Kakashi so he boiled in rage, _"Hmph, it doesn't matter if there were 1000 dobes. He's still a loser."_

Sakura sensed that Sasuke was mad (wasn't hard considering he looked constipated) and reassured him that Naruto-baka can't compare to him even if there were 1000 of him.

After 15 minutes, Naruto dispelled all of his clones and felt the memories come in and Kurama working to place the important bits in order and Naruto started to walk slowly on the surface of the water. He walked from one end of the river to the other and almost slipped a few times but managed to reach the other side of the river. Sakura was only halfway and Sasuke was still trying to get how to walk.

Kakashi was visibly impressed that Naruto made it and it was clear that the last 4 days he was training chakra control among other aspects. He congratulated Naruto, "Well done, Naruto. Now keep walking back and forth across the river and then practice some techniques while on water. If you can do that then the water walking technique is mastered."

"Teach me that jutsu, dobe. If an idiot like you can learn this with some clones that fast then I will have mastered it by doing the same thing" said Sasuke, smirking that he can get this over with quickly.

Taking a page out of Luffy's book of responses he said, "Here's my answer" and farted.

Luffy was a bit sheepish and said he got that from Sabo but Kurama was laughing either way. Sasuke was seething at the dobe's disrespect to an Uchiha and Sakura was disgusted at Naruto's manners.

"NARUTO-BAKA! HOW DARE YOU DO THAT IN FRONT OF A LADY!" shrieked Sakura and tried to get to him to pound him and she took two steps until she fell fully into the water.

She was torn between the desire to stay there and play "damsel in distress" for her Sasuke-kun or to get out of the cold water before it ruins her skin and clothes. The second one won out as Sasuke didn't even bother and she swam back to Kakashi.

"Have you mastered the water walking technique yet Sakura?" asked Kakashi.

"No, but..." started Sakura.

"The get back there. The only reasons you have to be here is if you mastered it, or I say so." ended Kakashi in a final tone. He was way too soft on them, its time to play hardball and Sakura's looking at strike 1 if she doesn't get back to work.

"H-hai sensei" she stuttered, surprised at the sudden change in her sensei's personality and went back to work.

After 4 hours, Naruto could race from one end of the river to the other and had a mock fight with some kage bunshin. After he wrapped it up and hit the last clone he walked back to Kakashi's side of the river. Kakashi told him that's enough training and to use this day for some rest.

Sasuke was visibly angry as he only just managed to get 3/4s of the way and Sakura was looking like she was going to drop any minute.

Naruto raced back to the house and got a change of clothes and had a good lunch with Tsunami and Inari. He then went to visit the bridge with Inari and saw Tazuna celebrating with the workers at completing the bridge. Inari looked sad that since the bridge was finished then Naruto would leave back to Konoha so Naruto decided to spend time with him and went to the village and wandered around. The place was nothing like what it looked like before. With Gato gone, supply ships from Konoha could dock there and deliver emergency aid, medicine and supplies. That explains how Tsunami got so much food for them when the place was in poverty.

He spotted team 8 there with one of the deliveries and decided to walk over to them and say hi.

"Hey Kiba, Shino and Hinata" Naruto said as he walked over to them.

Immediately, Hinata started to blush and turned away.

 _"What's with her?"_ thought Naruto, cluelessly.

 _"No idea. She has the same problem my wife Hancock had. Its a mystery disease."_ said Luffy in equal confusion.

 _ **"I'm not even human and I understand them better than these idiots"**_ thought Kurama in exasperation that the density of Naruto's skull didn't decrease after all this.

Kiba said arrogantly, "Well if it isn't our dead last, this is our C-Rank mission. Something I bet you never heard of. What are you doing here?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes and replied evenly, "Yeah I don't know what a C-rank is considering we had an A-rank to protect the bridge builder here from a crime lord".

The three of them looked surprised at what Naruto said.

"Hah. That's a dumb lie. You of all people getting an A-rank. Yeah when pigs fly." said Kiba picking himself up from surprise.

"That's the truth, Kiba." said Kurenai as she appeared out one of the houses after delivering the last of the crates. "Naruto and his team were given a mission to protect the bridge builder but it turned into an A-rank when one of the ex-Seven Swordsmen of the Mist targeted the bridge builder. I was briefed on the situation and they managed to defeat him and an accomplice and overthrow the ruling crime manganate present in Wave."

The three were visibly startled (even Shino but he had a coat so no one could see it).

Kiba immediately got angry, "Hey why was he of all people given a mission like that. I could do it way better than the dead-last!"

"Shut up. Naruto is way better than you will ever be dog-breath" said Inari angrily.

Kurenai looked at him sharply and replied, "You mean to tell me you, a genin, think you can take on an A-rank missing ninja. It's a miracle they survived! If we had this mission I would have obeyed protocol and waited for a proper team to be assembled but Kakashi's incompetent and reckless decision to continue goes against the rules."

"We couldn't really do that considering that every day we waited, the greater chance that Gato would just blow up the bridge or raze the village down. Those that break the rules are scum, but those that abandon their comrades and the innocent are worse than scum. That was lesson #1." said Naruto in a serious tone, considering she just insulted Kakashi-sensei. Inari was ticked when she was basically saying that the people who saved them were idiots.

"Know your place, genin. Now come with us and make yourself useful in distributing the supplies" she said in a sharp tone and finally left back to the village with Kiba and Shino in tow.

Hinata asked Naruto in a worried tone, "N-n-nar-naruto-kun, a-are yo-you alright?" she stuttered.

"Hmm. Yeah I'm fine, Hinata. Don't worry," replied Naruto with a smile.

Hinata blushed and said goodbye and followed her team along with Naruto. Naruto asked Inari to go home with his shadow clone that he made and tell the others where he is.

They gave out food and medicine to the villagers and each house they went to they greeted Naruto with respect and thanked the "hero of Wave" for freeing them. Inari had told all the villagers about how Team 7 had saved them all from Gato. Needless to say that got on Kiba's nerves quickly and he snapped at them for praising the dead-last. Shino and Kurenai kept their stoic demeanour and Hinata was smiling that these people respected Naruto for his hard work but quickly turned dark when some of the girls their age got too close to Naruto when saying thanks. Naruto was just oblivious and wanted to get this over with but was running low on chakra so decided not to make kage bunshins.

"That's the last one. Now where are you and the rest of Team 7 staying" asked Kurenai.

"We're staying with the bridge builder at his house. Its got enough room for the rest of you so you can come with us" said Naruto as he started to go back to the house. Hinata blushed at being able to stay with Naruto and followed suit. The others went with him as well.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As soon as Naruto and team 8 walked in they caught sight of a muddy and soaked Sasuke and Sakura looking worn out from the water walking exercise.

Kiba wasted no time in commenting on Sasuke's appearance, "Greetings almightly last Uchiha in all his filthy presence, training hard well you're going to need it if you want to stand a chance against me."

Sasuke frowned but was too tired to respond, Sakura's vocal system however has a self-sustaining energy source with surround sound.

"SHUT UP DOG BREATH. SASUKE-KUN COULD BEAT YOU ANYDAY OF THE WEEK!" shrieked Sakura.

He winced and mentally reprimanded himself for insulting him next to his fangirl. Kurenai glared as she hated fangirls more than perverts. Shino's insects buzzed with discomfort from the noise. Hinata wondered what on earth Naruto sees in her. Naruto scoffed as both their egos are the size of the moon, sadly Sakura caught that.

"AND YOU NARUTO-BAKA. DON'T THINK YOUR BETTER THAN SASUKE CONSIDERING YOU CHEATED WITH YOUR STUPID **KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUSTU** " she continued.

"Bunshin? What are you talking about? The dead-last can't make bunshins and how would they help?" asked Kiba in confusion.

"Kage Bunshin! That's a jonin level, B-rank kinjutsu! How did you learn that?" asked Kurenai in surprise and asked him sharply. The genins looked at her in surprise and turned to Naruto. Sasuke was livid that he learnt such a high level jutsu.

 _"Crud, ideas?"_

 _"Why do you always ask me? Ask the fur ball, I'm not good at lying!"_ replied Luffy with a tick mark.

 **"If I recall right the hokage said the Mizuki incident is a high A-rank secret so say you can't say it"** added Kurama as he checked Naruto's memories.

"That is a high A-rank secret from the Hokage's orders" replied Naruto.

"Stop lying and tell me now or I will go to the Hokage and have you arrested for stealing a kinjutsu" Kurenai said sharply. _**(A/N I don't really like her attitude to all men at all considering she thinks all men are sexist pigs so she gets bashed a little. Kiba is arrogant at the start but will deflate**_ _ **later).**_

"He is telling the truth Kurenai. If you press this matter you will be taken into custody for demanding information above your rank. That goes for all of you," Kakashi said sharply, _"She is still biased against Naruto since her parents died in the Kyuubi attack"._

"Fine but using a jutsu that the Nidaime Hokage invented so recklessly for training is foolish. Your genin could die of chakra exhaustion if he does that!" Kurenai rebutted sharply at Kakashi. Naruto decided to defend his sensei considering he was one of his precious people.

"In case you forgot, my "condition" makes it easily possible and Kakashi-sensei would never endanger any one of us" Naruto replied angrily.

"This doesn't concern you, genin" she sharply replied with a huff and went to eat in the dining room.

"Thanks, Naruto" Kakashi replied, happy that Naruto stood up for him like that.

"I-I d-don't know wh-what's wro-wrong with Ku-Kurenai-sensei" stuttered Hinata with worry since this is a new side to her she didn't know about.

The others couldn't really care less about the drama. Kiba and Shino went to the dining room and Sasuke and Sakura went to get changed.

"Well, she hates me because of my choice in literature" said Kakashi nonchalantly.

 _"Literature, he means that smut? Sure it's not something I would read but still he's a grown man, he can read whatever he wants!"_ thought Naruto and Hinata was wondering what kind of books he reads.

"What about me? Is it because of..." Naruto started but trailed off, remembering Hinata was here.

"Yeah" said Kakashi rather bitterly that his sensei's son was treated like this and wondered whether it was too early to make her a jonin.

Hinata was still confused so she left to eat and bid them goodbye.

Naruto and Kakashi sighed simultaneously and decided to follow suit.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dinner was a subdued affair that night.

Sasuke and Sakura were devouring food like wild animals and Naruto had to feel a little sympathetic towards their plight. Sakura decided to disregard her diet for once and ate like no tomorrow.

Of course they couldn't defeat our blond hero who ate a lot of meat separately from Tsunami and Kurama assured him that the craving was nearly gone.

Team 8 watched them in shock and a slight bit of disgust.

Kiba, with his alpha mindset, decided to eat more than them and promply failed and passed out. He was also hit with a frying pan after eyeing Tsunami, courtesy of Tazuna.

Shino ate in silence. Very silent. It was a mystery how he could eat in a huge overcoat.

Hinata ate in a polite and proper manner but thanked Tsunami for the delicious meal and caught a few glances at Naruto, something Tsunami didn't miss.

Kakashi ate, somehow through his mask. This whole time he had some technique of food passing through his mask and no one could see his face.

Inari ate with a few tears but Naruto reassured him that he would visit sometime if given the chance.

Tazuna decided to break out the sake early and to drink to their heroes.

Kurenai looked disgusted at the amount of meat Naruto ate and ate her own meal while maintaining her ice-cold demeanour to Kakashi and Naruto.

All in all, it was a weird night but it was going to get weirder.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"WHAT!" yelled Kurenai at Tsunami.

"I told you we don't have that many rooms. There are 3 spare rooms left and the rest are taken by the other team. Someone has to bunk with Naruto as he has the attic and Hinata-san volunteered" Tsunami replied patiently, while inwardly smirking at her matchmaking skills.

"There has to be something, I could maybe..." Kurenai started because there was no way she was letting Hinata near that thing that killed her parents.

"Hinata-san has already moved into the attic and is getting ready to sleep like the rest of us. If you are done now then I bid you a goodnight" Tsunami replied with a tone of finality in her voice and left.

Kurenai glared daggers at Naruto who was passing by with Kakashi. Naruto was still clueless at what was wrong with her but wouldn't show any fear in his face and asked "What?".

"If you do anything to Hinata, I will..." Kurenai started in a threatening tone.

"Ok I've had just about enough of this. Look lady I am a male, but I am not that type of guy. Kakashi-sensei is not that type of guy. Sure he reads smut but so what, it's his choice. Finally a bijuu isn't going to just pop out of me anytime soon considering the seal was made by the YONDAIME of all people and the SANDAIME is sure of it too or I wouldn't be here, so wake up you prejudiced witch" Naruto said with his temper about to reach breaking point at this woman.

"How do you know...?" started Kurenai in mild surprise at the bijuu part.

"About the Kyuubi. Hard to miss with people like you around treating me like a monster for something I had no choice in. So shut up and leave me ALONE" snapped Naruto back at her.

On that note Naruto stormed upstairs into his room.

"Kakashi, is this how you treat your genin. He has no discipline, no..." Kurenai rounded on Kakashi feeling the need to vent out her anger on someone.

"Kurenai. I say this with all the respect you deserve. Shut up you moron," stated Kakashi with a slightly infuriated tone. "You are despicable, treating an orphaned boy who was used as a sacrifice to protect the village from devastation and lives his life suffering from the pain of loneliness. The Hokage chose me and me specifically to be his sensei because I know what that feels and I say this with full confidence that Naruto will become great. He has a strange gift to empower his allies and even turn his enemies into his friends and I know he will be a great and kind leader. He has suffered, cried and been shunned by the village and still kept his sanity and instead of resenting or hating us, he chose to prove to the village that even if he is a jinchuuriki he will become a Hokage and protect the village with his life, just like your best friend Anko yet you don't reject her. The only demons here, Kurenai, are people like you who force him to the path of darkness that all Jinchuuriki suffer. Clearly your promotion was too soon, I was wondering that for a while now after your jabs at my "incompetence", but now it's clear, I will have words with the Sandaime about this. Jonins in the village mostly kept their rank after the Kyuubi attack from the Sandaime because they had half a brain to understand the life Naruto is forced to lead and from this it is clear you are not worthy of that rank. And for the record, a backup squad would be stupid considering Zabuza was only down for a week but it would take two weeks to get to Wave by foot and you only got here so quickly by sea, which Gato used to control."

And on that note Kakashi left a shell-shocked Kurenai standing in the hallway and retired to seriously get rid of this headache. Oh if only he was a sannin or still an elite ANBU and could take Naruto as an apprentice, life would be way easier.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto walked up the stairs, still thinking about Kurenai in anger.

 **"Kit, calm down. Your path was never going to be easy and the one you chose now is like climbing a vertical wall. That woman probably lost someone she cared about when I was forced to attack the village. One day they will see the truth, but like you said you have to endure,"** said Kurama from his head.

 _"Naruto, my brother was killed by a madman in front of my eyes. The next time I saw him again, I got caught up in hatred and tried to kill him. Eventually I realised just what kind of person my killer was and I couldn't take his life. Of course like all my enemies mostly he tried to go for a cheap shot and I stopped him and walked away a better man. I got over my hatred and so will she someday, only if you retaliate and act like she expects you to then she wins. If not then I guarantee she will feel like a monster and if she has the courage to take responsibility, she will come to apologise. What will you do?"_ Luffy added.

Naruto thought about what Luffy said and realised he was going to be just as bad as her if he kept this up. He sighed and replied, " _I will accept"_ thought Naruto without hesitation. He walked back into his room and remembered that he was sharing it with Hinata. Why did she want to bunk with him of all people? Naruto sighed as he never understood what was with her. Luffy also agreed that she must have the same disease Hancock had. Kurama was facepawing at these idiots.

Naruto got to his room and Hinata was waiting for him and her face was as ripe as a tomato.

Naruto said nervously, "Umm...Hinata since there's only one bed, you can sleep on it and I will take the floor. Is that ok with you?"

Hinata replied a bit too quickly "No" and blushed even harder. Trying not to stutter she replied, "I-I don't want to i-intrude like that, t-the be-bed is big en-enough for bo-both of us".

Naruto had the decency to blush and since Hinata was moving towards the edge of the bed and about to lie down, he reluctantly did the same and placed several pillows between them.

 _"I'm sleeping with a girl. Not just any girl, she's like a princess or something because she's the heir to the Hyuuga clan. This is really awkward"_ thought Naruto as he fought down the blush and put on his hat to cover up his face.

" _Just sleep and I wouldn't snore. My wife was a queen but she didn't make a big deal out of me sleeping with her but Sanji flipped out when he found out. I have no idea what was wrong with him but just focus on sleeping_ " said Luffy.

 ** _"Wow she grew a spine quickly. I barely sense any hatred from her, she has a heart of gold like the kits,"_** thought Kurama as he used Naruto's senses on Hinata.

"N-Na-Naruto-kun, I want to a-apologize for wh-whatever Kurenai-sensei said" she stuttered out and was blushing so hard that she might explode from sleeping with Naruto.

"It's ok Hinata. It's no big deal," reassured Naruto, "not like she's the first" he said quietly to himself.

Hinata managed to hear that, she asked "W-why do-does sh-she dis-dislike you?".

 _"What do I say? I don't want to lie to her but if I tell her the truth then she will hate me"_ thought Naruto in panic.

 _"I think you should say it. Hancock once had a really painful secret and once she told me about it and got rid of it she felt a lot better"_ said Luffy.

 **"I'm with Luffy. Don't worry, she is almost devoid of hatred like you, she will understand. Just tell her about being a jinchuuriki and keep the rest secret** " said Kurama and he explained that he didn't want others to find out he could communicate with Naruto as there would be a huge storm if people found out about that.

"Ok Hinata. This is a S-class secret so don't tell anyone, only I can" Naruto said in a quiet tone. She immediately perked up and was listening. "Do you remember the Kyuubi attack on October 10th?"

"Y-yes. The Yondaime killed it and sacrificed himself" recited Hinata and wondered what that had to do with this.

"That's not the whole truth. A bijuu can't be killed since it's just made of chakra. He had to..seal it" he said quietly.

"Seal it? Into what?" asked Hinata. Then she pieced together the dots, "Y-you, but why?"

"To seal a bijuu, he had to do it to a newborn baby. And I guess I just had bad timing. I never had parents who could complain about it so I was used as a sacrifice. Your sensei probably lost someone in the attack and blames me or the Kyuubi in me for it, I guess," Naruto said quietly as he turned away and a tear fell from his eye. He put his hat on his face to cover up his tears.

"Hinata, please don't tell..." Naruto started but was cut off from a hug by her. She took off the hat, turned his head and looked him in the eye and said without stuttering, "Naruto, you kept the village safe all these years and they treat you like this. I'm so sorry I asked. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you. If I knew, I would have tried to help you. Sensei is wrong for thinking like that. I don't think any less of you, kyuubi or not. You are not the Kyuubi, you're Naruto, just Naruto".

Naruto unconsciously returned the hug and cried harder. After a while, he dried his face and Hinata gave his hat back. She asked again and tried an icebreaker, "Naruto, where did you get this hat. I never saw you wear it before" considering she might have stalked him for a while (ok constantly) and never saw him wearing it.

 _"A ghost pirate gave it to me"_ he thought, _"Yeah like she would buy that"._

Deciding go with a modified version of the truth he said, "Someone who believed in me and told me I could accomplish my dreams gave it to me. He was someone who accomplished his dream by making a promise to this hat. After I accomplish my dreams, I'm giving it to the next dreamer and letting its legacy continue. I'm proud to wear his hat and I will accomplish my dreams, that's my promise to this hat".

"He sounds amazing" said Hinata in awe, "But who was he, the Sandaime? or.."

Deciding to just end it he said, "Thats a sec~ret".

Hinata giggled cutely _"Wait cute?_ " at that and said "Ok, t-then why do you like Sakura?" wondering what she had that Hinata didn't, other than Naruto.

 _"What does that have to do with anything?"_ he wondered. Kurama bashed his head into the wall at his dense host. His skull must be made of diamond or something, that might explain how he survived getting hit by punches all the time.

"I have no idea. It was just a dumb childish thing because I just wanted attention and for someone to recognise me, even if it meant getting concussions" said Naruto rather sheepishly, "But I grew out of it, it wasn't real and I got rid of it. Besides its hard to even go near her when she goes at 40 shrieks per hour."

Hinata laughed again at that and was inwardly glad that he was still open, she wanted to ask "What does he look for in a girl?" but she started to lose her confidence from being this close to her crush. She knew that Naruto was not some childish crush. She loved him, his determination, kindness and confidence made her always look up to him. But she was not a fangirl and she resolved to work harder and be just like him.

"Ok my turn to ask something?" said Naruto as he turned towards her and said, "What are your dreams?"

"M-My dr-dreams?" stuttered Hinata, "I-I want to reunite my clan. It is split between the main branch and the other members. I want to end the differences and bring them together. A-An-And I a-also w-want t-to b-be wi-wth a ce-cer-certain b-boy". She stuttered out the last part and covered her face in the bed covers. Naruto felt a little jealous at that last part, " _Wait jealous? where did that come from_?" thought Naruto. Kurama was bashing his head so hard that there were about 7 different holes from bashing his head on solid rock. Luffy got hungry and decided to eat.

"My clan is split between the main branch and cadet branch. The cadet branch are forced to wear a curse seal on them. I hate that, I want to get rid of it when I become the heir but the rest of the main branch hate me for it. The cadet branch can't do much and I don't think I can be heiress because they all think I'm weak and..." said Hinata sadly.

"Ok stop right there, Hinata-chan you are a lot of things but you are most certainly not weak." he said forcefully and looked at her in the eye, "You are the kindest person I know. If your clan can't see that then their idiots and from the sound of this seal the sound like even more stupid. Being kind does not make you weak. It makes you strong, its only because of your kindness that you have the heart to accept anyone, even a demon like me. Someone who I look up to told me that "When you are protecting someone precious to you, that is when you become strong". You are still protecting them all, even those main branch jerks, you still care and want to protect them. Not feeling any hatred against them or anyone, how many people can do that! You are strong and it doesn't matter what others say. Everyone calls me dead-last, dobe, demon but I don't care. They can say whatever they want, only whatever I think of myself is important. Whatever you think of yourself is the only thing that matters. Have more faith in yourself and go for it!"

Now it was her turn to cry and she buried her head in his chest and hugged him. Naruto's face started to heat up again and hugged her back.

"Thank you Naruto-kun" she said, her voice muffled. After a while, she didn't let go, she was thinking about what he said and did a double-take _"He called me Hinata-chan!"._

They both started to feel their eyes droop and fell asleep like that, not knowing the storm that was about to hit in the morning.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kakashi and Kurenai decided to wake up their genin early so they could make some good distance. Kakashi went upstairs with Kurenai to see the love-birds. When they opened the door they were shocked and took a few seconds to reboot.

Hinata was snuggling against Naruto's chest and wrapped her arms around him and Naruto had an arm around her as well.

Kakashi rebooted first and was crying tears of joy, _"He hit puberty, yes! Now part two of the mini-me plan: Show him the wonders of Icha-Icha. I may have a mini-me earlier than I thought, you're going down Gai."_

He looked towards Kurenai and saw her burn in rage. _"Uh-oh, she's about to go nuclear"._

"NARUTO!" she yelled as loud as she could. The two of them woke up and looked at each other and blushed at the position they were in. They then turned to see a Kurenai going into meltdown and Kakashi crying and waving goodbye. They separated quickly and blushed harder.

"L-Look, it's not what it looks like. I swear!" Naruto started trying to calm her down.

She moved towards Naruto in fury and Kakashi was going to stop her but then another bombshell hit them.

Hinata realised what her sensei was going to do and she immediately moved in front of him in front of him and protected him.

When Kurenai got her head back to reality she said, "Hinata step away from him. Why are you protecting him?"

"Sensei stop. We didn't do anything we talked before we went to bed and I-I gave him a hug and we fell asleep. We didn't do anything. And if anyone is to be punished it should be me since I was the one who hugged him." she said fiercely, with minimal stutters.

Kakashi was proud that Naruto was able to instill confidence into Hinata. _"We should have just done that in the first place"_

Kurenai was torn between anger at Naruto, shock at Hinata's confidence boost out of nowhere, and pride that she was getting stronger. She wanted to murder him for sleeping with someone she thought of as a daughter but was filled with pride at the new Hinata. Eventually pride won our, just barely.

"Fine" she said, "But if you try anything like that with her again then I will castrate you, understood"

Naruto decided to put his darkness logia intangibility on hair trigger alert around her and nodded.

They both left and told them to pack up and get ready to leave. Hinata took deep breaths and was shocked that she could do that. _"Is this what Naruto-kun meant? Strength to protect those precious to you?"._

"You were amazing Hinata-chan. You stood in front of a jonin without being afraid. I told you that you were strong, just have more confidence in yourself" Naruto said and patted her on the shoulder.

Hinata blushed and hugged him again saying "Thank you".

"Ok let's get packed up and ready to leave" said Naruto as he started to get his clothes in order in the closet.

Unbeknownst to them, the two jonins were at the door. One was looking ashamed and other had a cheshire grin on his face.

"I told you so" said Kakashi as they left to wake up the others.

"Shut up" replied Kurenai, feeling guilty at thinking Naruto was a demon like the rest of the villagers kept telling her.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They woke up the others and they quickly got ready to depart. Inari went to Naruto and thanked him several times for all he did for Wave and giving them the strength to fight back. Tazuna told them that they were welcome back anytime and Tsunami packed them meals for a few days and Kakashi sealed it in a scroll.

The villagers of wave all gathered together and cheered for them, especially Naruto. The group took one last look at a country that was on its knees, pick themselves back up and become whole again. They left the village and came across the bridge. A signboard was hung up in front of it and it made Naruto almost cry as he read it.

 _"The Great Naruto Bridge. This bridge is dedicated to a young man that gave us the most priceless treasure of all when we had lost it. He gave us hope."_

 ** _AND THAT CHAPTER IS FINISHED. I WON'T BE ABLE TO WRITE MUCH OVER THE WEEKEND BECAUSE I HAVE STUFF TO DO. READ, REVIEW AND COMMENT AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!_**

 ** _I STARTED NARUTO ON LEARNING HIS POWERS AND DECIDED TO MAKE THE PAIRING WITH HINATA BECAUSE I READ A LOT OF THOSE AND I LIKE IT. HE WILL TRAIN MORE BEFORE THE CHUUNIN EXAMS BUT HE WONT BE OVERPOWERED. HAKI IS COMING WAY LATER AND ITS WAY TOO EARLY FOR THAT. BYE!_**


	4. Chapter 4: Home or hell?

**Naruto: The Dark Rubber Ninja**

Summary:

After the wave mission Naruto rethinks life as a ninja and and questions his purpose. That stray thought created ripples that changed the entire world be it for better or worse. Now after finding the yami yami no mi and gomu gomu no mi the future is in his hands. Sasu/Saku/council bashing and no decided pairings yet. Smarter and stronger Naruto. Rated T.

 **Jutsu/summons/bijuu/creepy inner banshee spirits: Bold**  
 _Thoughts: Italics/writing  
Luffy: Underline and_ italics  
Emphasis in speech: Underline

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or One Piece. Please review and give me advice to improve.**

 **Lightningblade49 and gamelover41592:**

 **Kurenai will be redeemed (maybe I went a bit too far and I apologise to Kurenai fans) and will start a relationship with Asuma soon. I wanted someone to play concerned parent for Hinata since my Hiashi is cool and knows Naruto is Minato's son and is ok with them. Naruto will have all three hakis (he is the main character!). I've seen fics where she was a bit like this so I decided that I would give her that attitude for a while for reasons that you will see in future but don't worry I will redeem her in this chapter.**

 **Jack the fic:**

 **He will have haoshuku haki (Conqueror's Haki).**

 **thewhitedragon1993:**

 **I might do some more since you like it.**

 **jonnywolf:**

 **I dunno. I wanted him to start at the timeskip but I suppose he can open the scroll and read it. He will not be using any haki he learnt against Kabuto or in Sasuke retrival arc.**

 **YuNaru19:**

 **Umm, ok. I gave him the high endurance, his speed and power will rise from mad training regimes and he will be superhuman (he kinda is anyway because what human can make 1000 clones of himself?)**

 **its good:**

 **Sorry, this is my first try so I don't think I have enough experience at writing harem and I don't like it that much**

 **storm:**

 **I dunno what u mean. I dont think I can write in spanish so no?**

Chapter 4: Home or hell

The two teams of 7 and 8 were travelling back to Fire Country at ninja speeds, for the last few days. They mostly kept travelling because the banshee can't scream about something related to Sasuke if they were moving at high speeds because she had to keep her mouth closed to not swallow bugs. They moved in a linear pattern for quick travel.

Kakashi was at the front of the teams and keeping point with Sasuke who was using this opportunity to try the Sharingan.

Naruto was with Hinata and she had her Byakugan to keep an eye out for attacks and Naruto had Kage Bunshins form a perimeter around the team and turned on his negative emotion sensing ability.

Kiba was trailing behind them with Akamaru and both kept their noses sharp.

Sakura was behind them with Shino, obviously not happy with the travelling arrangements but was too freaked out to say otherwise.

Kurenai was at the rear and had a small genjutsu to cover the teams.

They were travelling most of the time, stopping to eat or sleep, but after about 5 days or so the jonins decided to give the genins a break and stopped early to let them rest.

All the genins (minus Naruto since he had a godlike stamina hack from the author) were visibly tired and slightly frustrated.

Naruto was starting to get annoyed at Kakashi's attempts to get him to read Icha Icha but politely told him that he was underage and wanted to follow the rules on this (Kakashi was visibly sad that he was too much like him on this one subject but wouldn't give up, he was getting a mini-me even if he has to fight the author for it!).

Hinata wanted to juuken Kakashi for trying to make him read that smut considering it is still inappropriate for 13 year olds.

Sasuke and Kiba were visibly frustrated at Naruto's newfound speed and extreme stamina and tried to keep up but to no avail.

Sakura was exhausted to death at the slave drivers and was not afraid to voice her opinions, sadly her voice box had its own amplifiers and speakers and so Shino really wanted to cover her in insects since he was stuck next to her for days (the insects pleaded that they don't do that because even they can't stand that noise and Shino reluctantly agreed that he wouldn't use them to cover Sakura).

"Ok my cute little genins, we're taking a quick stop for a while to rest for the day and then we're continuing at this pace to Konoha" said Kakashi sweetly.

All of them (except Naruto) dropped on the floor in exhaustion. Meanwhile Naruto was having his own inner debate.

 _"I think we should tell Kakashi and the old man about everything that happened"_

 **"I'm ok with you telling them about the devil fruits and stuff but the part about me might make them panic like headless chickens"**

 _"But Robin said to keep that part secret and besides the cyclops is cool and the jiji is nothing like mine. I think they will be ok with you but the stuff at the cave_ _should be on the down low"_

 _"Guys, come on. Both of them are trustworthy and objective. If the see the facts then they will understand Kurama. And Luffy, I think if we tell the old man he would get some guys he trusts to help out. I can't seem to get the sword techniques perfect yet so I could use some help on it"_

 _"Its your body I guess so if you think they are fine then ok"_

 **"Ok kit, but make sure its only them and trusted people that knows about me. If the rest of the village find out all heck will break loose"**

As Naruto concluded his inner debate that was going on for the last 3 hours the others started to get out their tents and sleeping bags while others started to get dinner ready since they had plenty of food from Tsunami as Naruto's meat cravings died down.

"N-Naruto-kun, wh-where is your tent?" asked Hinata worriedly as his was damaged last night.

"Don't worry Hinata-chan, watch this" he said as his Kage Bunshins converged and henge'd into a tent and one into a sleeping bag.

"Bu-but ar-arent, henges ju-just illusions?" stuttered Hinata in confusion and the rest were looking at the two.

"Wait they are? I always had solid transformations," asked Naruto in confusion.

Kakashi chuckled and replied, "No Naruto, transformations are just genjutsus, yours on the other hand would require extremely dense and high levels of chakra and that is nearly impossible for most ninja. Congratulations on inventing a personal A-rank jutsu or borderline S-rank jutsu. Making solid transformations means that you could easily impersonate others and I'm guessing you used that a lot for your pranks so it would be borderline S-rank for infiltration."

Sasuke was livid that the dobe of all people had a personal S-rank jutsu along with his B-rank kinjutsu and he couldn't copy either. Sakura was shocked that Naruto-baka had a S-rank jutsu and stayed silent (thank you). Kiba was blown away and resolved to work harder but would never admit it. Shino was filing this away in his data of his classmates. Kurenai was surprised as well as this went beyond the normal boundaries of Genjutsu. Hinata was extremely impressed at Naruto's skills and resolved to work even harder.

Naruto said, "Huh, go figure. But why didn't you say that earlier. I used that trick when we fought Zabuza the first time to transform to a real fuma shuriken."

Sasuke mentally reprimanded himself as that was one of the few times he stuffed his ego down to survive and he should have noticed that.

"I was drowning Naruto. Excuse me for not noticing" deadpanned Kakashi.

Naruto looked sheepish and helped out Hinata set up her tent. She blushed and was happy that they were getting closer together, something not noticed by the others.

Sakura thought, " _Hmph, finally he's leaving me alone. Of course he would be with another failure like him"_ **"Cha! Now Sasuke-kun is ours!"**

Kurenai felt her motherly instincts acting up but then remembered how Naruto managed to get her out of her shell. She owed an apology to Naruto as he did nothing wrong and gave Hinata strength.

Kakashi felt sympathetic towards Hinata as he remembered the skull density of Minato-sensei and noticed that it was inherited so Hinata may have a tough time getting though to Naruto.

The rest, as usual, didn't care.

* * *

As Hinata was washing up at a nearby river she was confronted by Kurenai. She was about to start but Hinata remembered what Naruto said at Wave and cut her off.

"Sensei, I am very disappointed in you" stated Hinata sharply.

"Wh-what" said Kurenai in surprise.

"I remember how you told me that your parents died in the Kyuubi attack but is hating Naruto of all people going to bring them back?" she replied. "Naruto told me the truth and he is allowed to" she added when seeing her face.

"Naruto was an innocent sacrifice that the Yondaime used to save our village and it is clear to anyone that Naruto is not the kyuubi that destroyed our homes. He is a poor, lonely boy who has suffered so much but still remains strong and wants to show the village their folly. I want to stand with him because he gave me the strength to complete my dreams" she continued, "You once told me that revenge just leads to more hatred when I was a child, I didn't know how hypocritical you were at that time."

She finished washing and walked away. Kurenai looked sadly and realised that both Hinata and Kakashi were right and vowed to apologise to Naruto about this.

* * *

When Naruto was about to go into his clone tent Kurenai was waiting for him outside the tent, she asked to speak with him privately and he didn't sense mcuh hatred from her now so he decided to go for it. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Kakashi keeping a vigilant eye on the two just in case.

"Umm...what is this about?" asked Naruto in caution.

"I would like to apologise" said Kurenai.

Naruto was a bit shocked and was stuck on reboot so the only response that came out was "Huh?"

"My parents died in the Kyuubi attack and I would like to apologise for my behaviour towards you. I was wrong to treat you like the rest of the villagers and I should have shown more professionalism and not let myself become biased by the Kyuubi," she said sincerely.

"Umm...that's ok, I accept" Naruto replied.

"You forgave me that easily?" she said in surprise.

"Well yeah. You were sincere and I don't really hold grudges since they accomplish nothing. I am sorry your parents died and you were just feeling hurt after losing them. If I had parents I might do the same thing but since you had to courage to apologise then there is nothing else left to say" he said.

Kurenai felt even worse at treating him like that without knowing that Naruto was a good person at heart and felt really guilty at the fact he never knew what parents were like.

"Thank you" she choked out, with a tear in one eye.

"It's ok and please take care of Hinata-chan" reassured Naruto.

Suddenly the glint in her eyes came back and this time Naruto was afraid. "You had better treat Hinata right, she deserves that much in life" she said dangerously, her parent instincts going haywire at the -chan part.

"Yeah, she is my friend and I will make sure she is happy" he said without hesitating and left back to his tent. Kurama had given up on Naruto in the subject of romance because all the big leaders were dense. He remembered the Shodaime never understanding women even after marriage, Kushina having to kiss Minato in public for him to understand and how long it took him to realise Kushina was a girl. Now he was watching this and wondered if this was a pattern.

 _"He STILL doesn't get it!"_ thought Kurenai in sadness at Hinata's frustration in dealing with his obliviousness. "H _e slept with the girl! For the sage's sake how dense is he!"_

* * *

While Naruto was about to sleep one word was on his head...parents. _"I always wondered who they were. Did they abandon me?"_ he thought to himself sadly.

 **"Kit. I...I know who they were"** said Kurama slowly.

"What! Kurama please tell me" pleaded Naruto as the Hokage never told him.

 **"Look kit, I want to tell you but that isn't my right to tell. Please understand that. I can tell you that they loved you very much and died from my attack,"** said Kurama feeling guilty about not telling him.

 _"T-they did?"_ said Naruto feeling hopeful.

 _"Naruto. I understand how you feel. My father was forced to leave me in the care of my grandfather. I asked him many times who my dad was and most of the time I got a "fist of love" which was a punch. It was only after we demolished Enies Lobby that my gramps knew I was strong enough to know. He told me my dad was a world-class criminal and the most wanted man in the world. I didn't get why he told me now but I realised he only told me because I was strong enough to know the truth and protect myself against people who would want to kill me because of being his son so get stronger Naruto because I think your life will be turned upside down when you find out about your parents"_ Luffy said seriously.

 _"Ok fine I will get stronger then and I will find out who they are. Believe it!"_ thought Naruto as he dozed off and fell asleep.

* * *

Naruto woke up refreshed after a good nights rest and got out of the tent and it poofed away into smoke with his sleeping bag.

As he started to stretch himself to wake up the rest of them all started to wake up. Kakashi and Kurenai alternated shifts to keep watch and they should be looking tired but a few caffeine tablets solves that.

Kiba, Shino and Sasuke climbed out of a three-man tent and Sasuke looking like had barely any sleep from the dog stench and bug buzzing and felt a fresh wave of jealously at Naruto and his kage bunshins making a tent for him.

Sakura slept in her own tent as no one wanted to be near her longer than necessary. Hinata had her own tent of silk and she packed it up as well.

They were going to eat a breakfast mostly made of meat from Naruto's savings but the jonins ate ration bars and got the genin to do the same. Naruto tried one, it tasted like cardboard and sandpaper so he spat it back out. Because of the shared senses Kurama was puking in his cage. Kakashi told him to get used to them because they supply the body with all the necessary nutrients and are quick and easy to consume during missions. Naruto tried another one but Kurama shut down his chakra at Naruto's taste buds to try and make it bearable. After a horrible meal where everyone was ready to depart.

They packed up the last of the gear and they started to tree-jump in formation.

* * *

While they were travelling Kiba got curious and asked about what it was like to fight Zabuza and Haku. Team 7 told them about their encounter with the Demon Brothers and then Zabuza for the first time. They explained how Kakashi got trapped and they managed to spring him out because of Naruto's quick thinking and Sasuke's understanding of his plan without communication. Then they talked about the fake Hunter ninja, Haku and how Haku saved Zabuza at the last minute. Then there was the battle at the bridge where Naruto and Sasuke beat Haku, while Kakashi fought Zabuza.

"Wait so if Sasuke was down, how did Naruto of all people beat an apprentice to the Seven Swordsmen of Kiri?" asked Kiba.

Naruto was about to go with the edited version but Sakura beat him to it and said "Naruto-baka just spammed with shadow clones and beat him".

Kiba was confused and pointed out that she just said that both of them were tired and down.

Sakura replied, "He managed to make some, his body somehow had red chakra though. It was probably some dumb trick."

The jonins and Naruto visibly tensed at that. Hinata saw this and made the link between that red chakra and the Kyuubi and kept her mouth shut. The other genins were even more puzzed.

"Red chakra? That is illogical. Why? Because pure chakra cannot be seen yet you claim that it was visible. Furthermore that is highly odd. Why? I was told that some extremely powerful ninja can manifest chakra into a visible form yet is almost always blue. Can you elaborate, Naruto-san?" asked Shino, speaking up for the first time in a while now.

Naruto was sweating as he tried to come up with a story but Kurenai covered him, "That is not something we can discuss as it is an S-rank secret punishable by death". She missed out the part where Naruto is allowed to break it so they wouldn't hound him for it.

"I don't know what it was but it was dark and evil and bloodthirsty. Naruto-baka what was that?" asked Sakura and wondering if her mother was right about Naruto being a demon.

"None of your business" he replied quickly and tried to end it.

"Tell me now dobe. I demand to know what that was and how to do it!" demanded Sasuke in anger at Naruto's growing power.

"You can't do that Sasuke. That is something unique to only Naruto" replied Kakshi, trying to shut up that Uchiha.

Now Sasuke was angry. First Naruto makes solid clones and doesn't show it to him. Then he has a S-rank henge jutsu that only he can use. Now he has this weird red chakra that overpowered Haku, someone he lost to badly. " _Why? Why is it always him that gets everything? I am an Uchiha, it is my right to use others to further my own power"_ as he remembered what Fugaku and the elders and the Civilian council always told him.

Angrily he stepped on a branch with full force and it was close to snapping. As Hinata was about to step on it, the branch gave away and Hinata was falling down a ten meter drop. Naruto **kawarimi** ed with Hinata and was at 5 meters when he grabbed a branch. He forgot to turn off his gomu powers so he activated his yami powers to suppress it quickly but his arm stretched a few centimetres and he channeled chakra to his feet to get a grip on the tree.

Kakashi, Kurenai and Shino noticed his arm stretching and they filed it away to ask in private. Hinata was visibly scared and went down to help him. Sasuke looked away as he didn't care and was more focused on how to get more power. The rest of them stopped to see if he was ok (well not Sakura on that last part, she was just happy to stop).

After a quick stop to see if he was alright the party continued on but he saw Kakashi, Kurenai and Shino look at him a bit strangely. Naruto decided for sure to tell Kakashi and the old man about his powers or they might get suspicious of Naruto.

* * *

Continuing at a fast pace they made it to Konoha. All of them (except Naruto and the jonins) were showing visible exhaustion as they reached the village.

The eternal gate guards, Izumo and Kotetsu were lazing about as usual, doing nothing in particular other than leaning back on their chairs and half-asleep on the job. Deciding to wake them up, Naruto opened up his portable pranking supplies and got out a Chinese firecracker. He created a couple of kage bunshin and henge'd them into mice. Kakashi saw what he was doing and lent him his lighter that he got from Asuma for his birthday and lit it. The mice quickly scurried under the desk with the firecracker and planted it close to their feet. After a few seconds loud banging noises were heard in the booth and two girlish screams could be heard and there was the sound of two men stumbling out of the booth crying and with smoke at their feet screaming "We're under attack!" and "Sound the alarm!".

Naruto was on the floor laughing along with Kiba who could appreciate quality humour.

Hinata couldn't help but giggle at Naruto's prank.

Kakashi gave his patented eye-smile at Izumo and Kotetsu running around like headless chickens. Kurenai smiled as well at the prank.

Shino smiled a tiny bit but under that coat no one could see it.

Sasuke and Sakura couldn't care less at Naruto's immature pranks.

After the explosions died down there was a visibly angry Izumo and Kotetsu glaring daggers at the bane of their existence. Naruto as a kid would be relentless to the two of them and as soon as he could prank the two of them would suffer. Having to deal with Naruto when he would get bored and prank the Chuunins in their nap-times, then they would have to chase him and soon learnt about Naruto's ability to set up traps early that could fool chuunin, jonin and even some ANBU. They thought that after he became a ninja they would be at peace but sadly, they had no such luck. Like every other time Naruto pranked them they couldn't complain to the Hokage because if they did he would ask how they got pranked when they were supposed to be on guard. When they finished chasing him they would usually go for some ramen and watch in delight as Naruto would go destroy someone else's peace of life and sometimes help him if he went easy on them in the chase. It was more fun to watch the prank rather than to be at the brunt of it.

All in all this was a common thing between them and they were some of Naruto's precious people and his test dummies for a new prank.

"Hey you two, nice to see you two keeping a watchful eye at all times" said Naruto with his foxy grin.

Izumo and Kotetsu were still visibly ticked that Naruto nearly scared them to death and ruined their sleep. Come on, they were allowed to do this. All that happened was a Kyuubi attacking and two vacant seats opened up. The two of them wanted to be heroes and took the job everyone else was afraid of full time but then nothing happened. They went to check the odds of a bijuu popping into the village and it is really low so they decided to make the best out their horribly rushed decision and chill.

"Yeah, yeah our lives were a lot more quiet while you were gone to say the least" grumbled Izumo.

"Well so has the village and it's a crying shame that the villagers are living life too peacefully without the king of pranks to torture them all" replied Kotetsu.

They stamped their entry and went back to their nap, not noticing that Naruto clones flooded the bathroom in the back while they were talking.

* * *

As they walked back to the Hokage tower some of the civilians glared at Naruto and merchants did their usual suck-up routine to Sasuke. Hinata was disappointed at the villagers for their bigotry and was sad that Naruto had to put up with this for years and should be treated like their precious "Sasuke-sama". Shino noticed the glares were directed at Naruto and filed this away into the ever growing mystery that is Naruto. Kiba was annoyed at the usual suck up routine that the village gave the Uchiha and decided to show the village he isn't special. Sakura glared at any girl who got close to Sasuke and released a pathetic amount of KI (killing intent) which just fazed them a little bit. Kakashi was ticked at the simple minded villagers but knew that as long as Naruto wore the headband any attack on him will be met with a **Raikiri.** Kurenai was disgusted at herself for believing all the lies the villagers spread about Naruto and wanted to make up for it. The villagers looked annoyed when they saw how close Naruto was standing with Hinata-sama and were voicing out their anger that she wasn't escorted by someone like Sasuke-sama. Naruto didn't really care because they just wanted him to be riled up and prove them right, hatred was poison. Once you react to it and try some it infects others and spreads like that, if he ever found the source of what started all this they were so going to get it.

(Black Zetsu sneezed while spying for Akatsuki)

Naruto and the rest of them reached the hokage towen and went to his office as all A-rank and S-rank missions required a direct report.

After the briefing Sarutobi asked Kakashi, "Why on earth did you do an A-rank with a genin team!".

Kakashi explained what happened after the Demon Brothers attacked, if they left Tazuna dry it would put Konoha in a bad light to abandon countries suffering, if they waited for back-up wave could be destroyed, his team were willing to go with him for the mission and he noted that Sasuke awoke his sharingan (to which he smirked).

"Furthermore, Naruto was able to unlock "that" power," he added seriously.

Sarutobi looked graver than ever upon hearing that. It had to happen eventually but now that "it" was awake the situation was far more serious. He decided to keep Naruto behind to talk to him about this.

"What power?" asked Sasuke in frustration at the lack of information.

"That is classified" the Hokage said sharply at his tone, "If you press this matter you will be executed for obtaining information that is a S-class secret. Now everyone other than Kakashi, Kurenai and Naruto leave this room now".

The rest of the genin left along with the ANBU and the hokage's office was deserted.

"Now Kurenai, I am very disappointed with your actions. Attempting to threaten my surrogate grandson, questioning the authority and competency of an elite jonin who held this post since he was 13. This is not at all what I expected of you. From your actions I may be forced to demote..." said the Hokage in an authoritative tone.

"NO!" yelled Naruto and everyone looked at him in surprise.

"Naruto, what do you mean?" asked the Hokage in surprise.

"She already apologised and meant it so I won't hold it against her. Her parents were killed and I don't want her to lose Hinata-chan and her team. There is nothing to punish her over for so please don't" pleaded Naruto.

Kurenai looked at Naruto in shock that the boy she had insulted and threatened was defending her and she felt even worse about saying those things about Naruto when he was a really good person at heart.

Sarutobi looked proud that Naruto didn't resent Kurenai for what she did and managed to change her. Kakashi was reading his literature but was paying attention to the Hokage's response.

"Ok since Naruto doesn't press anything then that is dropped but there is still questioning and undermining the authority of a superior officer on the list so if Kakashi..." continued the Hokage.

"Hmm, sorry Hokage-sama did you say something?" replied Kakashi with his face in his book.

Sarutobi sweatdropped at his response, "Umm... since Kakashi doesn't press anything either Kurenai you will remain a jonin but this is a warning. Pull a stunt like this again and you will be demoted regardless, am I understood" he said harshly.

"Hai, Hokage-sama" she replied with a bow.

"Good now Kurenai I would like you to leave and return to your team" he said and on that note she left. She was terrified at facing an angry Hokage considering he may be in old age but he was still the God of Shinobi and if anything threatened Naruto he would respond with an iron fist.

She vividly remembered that on his 6th birthday a mob was heading to his house and she was one of the chuunins guarding the Hokage at the time, when he heard about it he threw his robes off and was in his battle gear and leapt out the window leaving a shocked and irate Civilian council who were trying to distract him. He leapt from rooftop to rooftop with his ANBU guard and Kurenai in tow trying to calm him down. As soon as he arrived it quickly became a blood bath and hundreds of civilians who were about to burn Naruto house with him in it were burned alive by the Hokage. He was visibly beyond angry, this was the face of a man who lived through three shinobi world wars and fought with an inch of his life to protect those precious to him and even in old age that never changed. A few chuunin and genin were with the crowd and he had them executed without trail to remind them all one thing "Mess with Naruto and your life is forfeit". They never tried an attempt on his life again but Naruto didn't need to know that or even know that in the first place.

"Naruto I want to talk to you about..." Sarutobi started in a concerned tone.

"Wait old man. I still sense someone here hiding behind the bookcase" said Naruto and pointed towards the shelf. As soon as he said that Kakashi leapt into action and shoved a **Raikiri** through an ANBU member with a white mask with the kanji for "ROOT" with his sharingan eye spinning rapidly.

 _"Danzo, you have gotten bolder in your attempts, why the sudden change and what are you up to now?"_ he thought furiously, _"Wait how did Naruto sense him, I didn't even feel his chakra signature"_.

"I know I have a lot to explain and believe me it doesn't even make sense to me either at times" said Naruto.

"Naruto I am the Hokage, I have lived a very long time, I doubt anything will surprise me" he said and gestured him to continue.

He started to explain about how he was at Zabuza and Haku's grave and his promise to find his own path. Sarutobi couldn't be more proud of Naruto's goal as it was something he tried very hard to accomplish and failed but knew Naruto would find a way, he always did somehow. He then grew serious when he heard the word "Kyuubi" and was beyond shocked at the real story behind the Kyuubi attack, he wanted to find a flaw but it made sense and Minato left a note mentioning a masked man to Sarutobi and the dots started to connect with each other. He was then surprised that Naruto managed to change the Kyuubi's heart, it was impossible but if anyone else could do it, it was Naruto. He then told about Kurama giving him a unique sensing ability and started to believe the Kyuubi's story more and it explained how he found the ROOT in his office and felt grateful that Naruto would be a lot safer with it. He then grew baffled at the part with the devil fruits in the cave and how a long since dead pirate crew gave him gifts and had abilities to transcend beyond life and death. To prove it Naruto stretched his cheeks beyond normal limits with his gomu powers and flared dark flames to surround him with his yami powers and Sarutobi dropped his pipe at that and stared at Naruto mind-boggled at what he is seeing. He then went on to explain the part where there is a ghost pirate in his head and by then Sarutobi was looking pale at the number of voices in the poor boys head and sweatdropped at the pirate who acted like a four year old in his mind. Naruto then explained his new training scrolls, swords and his kage bunshin training. He was concerned that using so many clones could overload Naruto's mind at a young age but with Kurama sorting out the memories and acting as a filter the risk was minimal.

"Naruto, if any ninja came to me with this story I would have them tossed out for drinking on the job" said Sarutobi as he tried to wrap his head around what he said.

Kakashi was slightly hurt that Naruto didn't tell him but then Naruto explained that he wanted to tell them both in private as if he told it back in Wave then his royal Uchiha-ness would raise a fit over this and blab to the entire council, village and it won't be long before other villages find out and try to kill Naruto for the threat he could become.

Sarutobi was still trying to restart the old brain at what the heck just happened in Wave and was glad that if anyone was given these abilities it was Naruto who would use them for what is right and for the benefit of others over himself. He realised that Naruto had grown a lot in Wave and was glad that even with all that power he didn't let it get to his head and remembered that there is always someone stronger than you no matter how much power you have.

"Umm...Naruto is it possible to speak with Kurama and the ghost pirate in your head?" he asked slowly.

Naruto asked if that was possible and Kurama came up with an idea. He asked Naruto to make two kage bunshins and channeled their consciousness into the bunshins.

Naruto made two kage bunshins and did just that. The Kurama-Naruto grew red slitted eyes and thick whisker marks and the Luffy-Naruto transformed into Luffy before placing Luffy's spirit in that body.

 _"Woah. We're on the outside. This...this is awesome Naruto, you rule! Wahoo!"_ Luffy-Naruto screamed as he jumped up and down like a kid.

 **"Calm down Luffy, this is temporary. While our consciousness is here it drains the chakra from the clone so this is only temporary. Once you run out your consciousness goes back to Naruto in his head"** said Kurama-Naruto sharply in a deep tone.

"Still it's nice to see you guys out and about a bit more" commented Naruto.

 _"Yo ossan! Damn you're old! Seriously you have grey hair and wrinkles and stuff"_ said Luffy nonchalantly to Sarutobi, the strongest ninja in Konoha.

 _"Great two Narutos for the price of one. I'm too old to deal with this!"_ thought Sarutobi at Luffy's comments.

 **"Like you're one to talk. You are centuries old Luffy so that's the pot calling the kettle black"** said Kurama annoyed at Luffys brain dead behaviour.

 _"Shut up Kurama, you're almost a millenium old so you can't say that either"_ replied Luffy with a tick mark.

" **I didn't say anything idiot** " said Kurama.

"Three guys in one body, that is so wrong" mumbled Kakashi with a sweatdrop. The group heard that however.

"IM STRAIGHT SENSEI!" yelled Naruto.

 _"I'm married. Or I was a few hundred years ago"_ said Luffy.

 **"I don't have a gender"** said Kurama and everyone looked at him. **"What?"**

"I could have sworn you were a dude Kurama" said Naruto in confusion.

 **"All bijuu are just chakra constructs, we don't have a gender but we have some characteristics similar to one or the other. For example my sister Matatabi, the Nibi, is more like a girl but I was always more like a guy"** explained Kurama.

Sarutobi faked a cough to get their attention from the awkward discussion before it gets weirder.

"Ok so Luffy-san can you explain to me a bit more about these devil fruits" asked Sarutobi.

" _Ok ossan. Devil fruits have some magic power from the sea devil and they give you a specific power. Naruto already told you about paramecia, zoan and logia. He has my awesome gomu gomu no mi which I used to become the strongest man on the sea but you need a lot of hard work to be good at it. He also has Baka-beard's yami yami no mi so he can use darkness, it's creepy but awesome but not as awesome as being made of rubber!_ " said Luffy in his usual happy tone.

"OK but anything more specific like what is it made of, any side effects, whether it poses any harm to Naruto-kun?" asked Sarutobi getting annoyed at the childish pirate.

" _Ossan, don't worry it won't hurt our nakama but I have no idea what its made of. Loads of guys spent their lives trying to find one of these and longer trying to understand them but no one has a clue about them._ " said Luffy.

Sarutobi felt slightly reassured but still uneasy about these mystery fruits and told sharply that the fruits and Naruto's ability to find them is an S-rank secret to which Kakashi nodded looking serious.

"Are these abilities able to be passed down to his children?" asked Sarutobi.

Luffy said no but Kurama said yes as because of his presence and chakra affecting Naruto's DNA they integrated into his DNA and are transmissible to offspring. Sarutobi realised that this is a double-edged sword. With bloodlines he would be easier to watch over under the Hokage's authority but Danzo could use the CRA on him to get him under civilian grasp as they control marriages. He explained the CRA and Naruto said no to this as he didn't want a harem of people just to take a bloodline.

"Ok thank you Luffy-san you may return to Naruto-kun's...head I suppose" said Sarutobi lamely, still freaked out at having two voices in your head.

Luffy-Naruto dispelled and Luffy's consciousness went back to Naruto.

"Ok now Kurama-san I know Naruto has told me about the attack but can you please describe to me what happened and Naruto-kun, I'm afraid that you will have to leave for a part of this" said Sarutobi while looking uncomfortable about the subject on Naruto's parents.

"Its Ok, old man. This is about my mom and dad right. I understand," he said in a sad tone and left.

Sarutobi looked shocked but Kurama reassured him " **I didn't tell him. We convinced him that they had a lot of enemies and Naruto is too weak to defend himself from them, which is true**."

Kurama then explained in detail the events that occurred that night from his point of view and Sarutobi's face looked grave at this rogue Uchiha who could have some relation to Madara.

"So now we have a rogue Uchiha in a mask wandering around that can control bijuu. As far as I know there are no bijuu left unaccounted for other than the Sanbi when Yagura was killed by the rebel forces of Kiri but it is reforming so the risks of him getting a bijuu under his control are low for now" Sarutobi concluded.

"For now I will have my forces be on the lookout for this rogue Uchiha in a mask and contact my spy network leader to gather any information possible on this topic" he finished.

 **"Yes please do have that worthless toad come back here, I will enjoy watching the kit crush his nuts for not doing anything for him"** Kurama said in a dark tone.

"Jiraiya was..." Sarutobi started.

 **"I don't want to hear it. He is the saddest excuse for a godfather I have ever known. The cyclops had a reason for not being there considering after my attack you couldn't spare someone like him but I still saw the cyclops look out for the kit, even doing overtime on watch duty. The toad is a shameless pervert who left his godson in 13 years of hell while gallivanting across bath houses. I remember Minato telling Kushina that no matter what happens to them the toad will always look after their son as if he was his own so please don't even start. If he is the head of the spy network he would have had to come back here to deliver reports at times, do you know how happy he would have been to know that there was someone who cared for him like family. I've seen his memories and these villagers are bigoted, blinded sheep that follow what others do without a second thought. I may have been forced to attack this dump but from what I've seen from the kit's memories these monsters deserve to be destroyed for real. So be grateful that the kit has a kind heart even after all this or I would lay waste to this land and leave it barren!"** exclaimed Kurama in anger.

Sarutobi looked more guilty than ever that he couldn't do more for Naruto and prayed a little bit for Jiraiya because when he gets back he has to deal with one really furious bijuu.

"Ok but please leave him alive and in one piece, I do need his spy network to support the village." said Sarutobi because A) Jiraiya deserved it B) He didn't want a ticked off bijuu in his village, again! C) He's too old to deal with this, besides what's the worst that could happen?

(Meanwhile a white haired pervert sneezed violently and felt a very cold foreboding shudder go up his spine the likes of which even Tsunade couldn't generate. He ignored it and went back to his research)

"Ok thank you for your help Kurama-san" Sarutobi ended and Kurama-Naruto dispelled and Naruto walked back in.

"Ok Naruto-kun, I will have two trusted jonins help you with certain skills such as Santoryu, another for your Taijutsu styles of Rokushiki and Chef leg fighting style, Haki is a mystery to me and I hope Luffy-san can help you with that along with your Gomu Gomu no mi. Your Yami Yami no mi is a mystery and I have no idea how to help you so I hope you can do the best you can with those scrolls" said Sarutobi and getting out documents to find times for them to help Naruto.

"OK jiji, thanks and bye!" he said and ran out to train like there is no tomorrow.

* * *

As the days flew by so did many changes. The first change would be in Naruto from his hellish training schedule, which was fuelled partly by a desire to know who his parents were.

Lets start with the positives and work our way down.

Naruto made a huge success in the gomu department and with the instruction of Luffy managed to learn all his techniques in his normal body and was working on strengthening his body for Gear second. He had to also get some new clothes that could easily stretch with him and sadly had to ditch the orange. He now wore a dark blue shirt with a black jacket and black tracksuits with one orange vertical stripe each.

In the rokushiki department he was introduced to Gai and everything went to hell from there. As Gai was training Naruto on the "youthful" fighting style of Rokushiki, Naruto was visibly scarred by Gai and his madness. When Kakashi found Gai training Naruto he flipped and grabbed a razor and tried to shave Gai's eyebrows. After the situation was cleared up Kakashi made sure that if Gai was training him it would be under his supervision and had a razor at the ready to respond to the word "youth". He did not want to lose his sensei's son to the flames of youth, he would never forgive himself if that happened. So far he learnt **Soru, Tekkai** and **Kami-e** but his **Geppo** was hard to control and his **Rankyaku** and **Shigan** still needed work. **Rokuougan** was out of the question until he mastered all six techniques as Luffy remembered the toll it took on Lucci's body when he used it and warned against it.

The swords and leg department and an equal measure of success.

His kicks had enough power as Sanji did when he left Baratie but that wasn't nearly enough for **Diable Jambe**. He could utilise kicks to precise locations of the body like Sanji and form combo chains and was working on the **Anti-manner kick course** combo. Naruto found it harder to learn the names of the techniques than the actual techniques themselves. Gai made sure that his legs were strong enough to handle a technique before attempting to teach it. He also noted to the Hokage at the "youthful" effort Naruto puts into working and reminded him of Lee, when he suggested to take Naruto into his team for a short time. Kakashi nearly blew a fuse at what he thought was Gai stealing his mini-me in the making and the ANBU had to restrain him from shaving off Gai's eyebrows and bowl cut.

Moving on to the santoryu department, Sarutobi had Yugao and Hayate help Naruto with this. After they saw the Kitetsu's they couldn't help but shudder at the dark vibe they gave off and were surprised that they accepted Naruto. Since he knew how to hold a sword they didn't need to waste time on the basics and got to work. His Ittoryu and Nitoryu were excellent but adding the sword into the mouth and using it was harder than it looks. It was even noted that the time taken to adjust from nitoryu to santoryu was hell but worth it. He managed to fight with it but only learn the basic Oni Giri and Tora Gari. His Sanzen Sekai was learnt but he wouldn't be slicing mountains with it anytime soon. Kakashi cornered Hayate and warned him against giving Naruto a coughing attitude. Hayate was wondering what was wrong with Kakashi as his cough was non-transmissible and was getting better but with his sharingan eye open with the threat he just said yes (Kakashi won't let anyone take away his mini-me!).

His yami yami powers were not too great. He mastered black hole and liberation and had a technique to join black holes that his clones make together to make wormholes that send objects from one hole to the other but he barely tapped into its full power. His time to turn intangible was almost instantaneous when under attack but while using his power it takes 5-10 seconds to stop and become intangible. Suppressing his gomu abilities was almost instantaneous.

His haki was to put it lightly, terrible. Luffy warned him that even the best of warriors took years to master Haki so he didn't expect much to come out of this.

With Kakashi Naruto learnt tactics and strategy. This could be a game changer and even the strongest of opponents can be taken down by tactics. To learn this they played Shogi, chess, checkers and any strategy game he could find. They even played Rock-paper-scissors and also card games to minimise the parts where one must rely on luck. Needless to say Naruto was awful at the start. Kakashi scored a three move checkmate on the first game but with a LOT of practice Naruto started to reach high-chunin level tactic abilities. His strength was planning on the go, never before the battle and this made him wild and unpredictable. There was a memorable moment where he got the drop on Kakashi and took his queen, before Naruto got checkmated for leaving his king wide open.

He then went to the Hokage for a game and he lost (not that badly) Sarutobi asked if this was a real battle then what would his "king" be. Naruto told him that it was the children in the world that will grow in his ideal peaceful world and his precious people. Sarutobi told him that's two things and asked for one. Naruto said he can't give one and will never pick one over the other because if he forsakes his ideals for his precious people he would never be able to look at them again and if he gave up his precious people for his ideals then he would have no one to share the peace with and it would be a hollow victory. Sarutobi told him with pride that he will become a fair and just Hokage and told him to come back anytime for a game.

Kakashi had his team doing D-Rank missions for a while now and really wanted to give the team structure before training them. Sasuke flat out refused to work with them and said they would slow him down, even after everything that happened in Wave. Sakura refused to work with Naruto and would squeal when working with Sasuke but fawning over him while Sasuke did all the work as fast as he could was not teamwork. Naruto was willing to work with the duo for Kakashi's sake but they refused every time so he managed to work with his kage bunshins.

Speaking of kage bunshins he had been so overusing them that Kurama was working overtime every day to sort out Naruto's memories from training, of course Luffy would try to help but Luffy trying to sort out memories into separate files, categories, alphabetically, chronologically, difficulty level...made his head spin and usually Kurama would have to re-sort Luffy's work and decided that he was a lost cause. He then took a page from the kit's book and learned how to make kage bunshins and they ironically helped sort out Naruto's kage bunshins. Luffy was whining that he can't make more of himself for fun but that never stopped him from trying. So far progress is 0.00%. The mindscape wouldn't help him because the thought of several Luffys in his mind was a horrible idea so Luffy didn't have much to do.

Outside Naruto's head the genins were sweaty-faced as they finished their last D-rank.

Sasuke was visibly more smug than usual as the shinobi council had ordered Kakashi to help him with his sharingan considering that was the whole point of him being Sasuke's sensei. Kakashi was almost about to snap and beg someone to borrow his eye and teach the prat because he sure couldn't handle him. Flashing the sharingan around the village like a badge and not even trying to keep it a secret until it was actually at a good level, unlike Naruto who kept all his abilities perfectly on the down low. Sasuke could control the sharingan but only had 2 tomoe in one eye and 1 tomoe in the other. Sarutobi made it clear to all the ninja that if Sasuke was copying their techniques then he would face consequences. Although some genin and chunin were more than happy to help Sasuke-sama and the law didn't count if the ninja was willing to let it be copied but no sensible Jonin would let him take anything they worked years to achieve.

Sakura made very little progress on anything. She had good chakra control but zero stamina and no matter what Kakashi did she would collapse and play dead for her Sasuke-sama to rescue her. Her taijutsu was sloppy and she was only good with punches from training on Naruto but with him gone that was going down too. She kept eating a stupid diet from her civilian family and thus had no energy to do anything in training.

Kakashi was just plain disappointed that he only got one actual ninja, albeit a very weird one and one power-hungry monster-in-making and one useless fan-girl who was descending to the level of a civilian.

On the other hand, Naruto spent a lot more time with Hinata in Team 8.

They started to go to Ichiraku together and started to spend more evenings in each others company. Hinata had the patience of a goddess to get through his obliviousness and Naruto was happy to have a friend to spend time with and wished he was on their team. Deep down he was slightly jealous of the boy she wanted to be with but kept it buried for the sake of friendship. Kurama had already given up on watching his love life but even still he couldn't help but bash his head onto an iron wall he conjured. It had a decent dent in it from constant head bashing during their dates do far. Luffy was of absolutely no help here and Kurama wondered how the heck he married the most beautiful woman on Earth at the time.

When he visited team 8, Kurenai was willing to help him with genjutsus and even though it would be a cold day in Suna before he could cast one at least Kurenai could help him learn how to get out of them. Kurama could easily disrupt almost any illusions but very subtle ones can pass though him so Kurenai worked to remove that weakness (although she didn't know about the Kurama part).

Kiba was still brash and moronic at best and Naruto tried his best to avoid him. Looking back he used to be a good guy but after he was announced as the clan head he let that go to his head, really badly.

Shino was better. After a day of training there was an ant on Naruto's shirt and he picked it up and placed it back on the ground. Shino saw this and asked why he didn't kill it. Naruto said the ant didn't do anything so why should he kill for no reason other than the fact that he can. Since then Shino would talk to Naruto about insects since that was pretty much his life and although most of the stuff went over his head it was nice to talk.

* * *

"Naruto-san you're presence is demanded by the council" an ANBU member told Naruto and Kakashi halfway through a shogi game.

"Which one?" asked Kakashi, not looking up.

"Civilian" the ANBU replied.

Kakashi looked up to him and gestured him to sit down.

"Look kid, I can tell your new so I'm going to do you a favour from a senpai. Now let me ask you a question. On the order of command on ninjas where do the civilian council lie?" asked Kakashi.

"Umm...I'm not quite sure," replied the ANBU nervously.

"Not sure? Why are you taking orders from them if you're not sure?" asked Kakashi still not looking up.

"I was told the civilian council had the authority to give orders" replied the ANBU with uncertainty.

"By who?" asked Kakashi.

"The esteemed elders and the civilian council" replied the ANBU not understanding where Kakashi was going with this.

"OK now lets put this in perspective. A bunch of civilians and old fossils who do nothing but rust in an old folks home order you around and when you ask who gave them the right to order you around, apparently they gave it to themselves. Now do you see this, who do you think this represents?" he said and picked up a pawn.

The ANBU realised that he and his co-workers that joined recently had been played for as fools and was annoyed that the council used them for meaningless tasks such as getting their groceries.

"I see you get it. Next time kid, don't take everything face value. You'll die early from being executed for treason when you were framed or something like that," he said nonchalantly and sent that pawn to its death in front of a queen and knight.

"Also the civilian council and old bags of bones have no right to interrupt a valuable training session between me and my cute little genin so tell them to wait for us" he said and continued the game.

The ANBU shunshined away but not before telling his co-workers what their senpai told him.

"Damn, you were so cool" said Naruto, "You gotta show me how to do that"

Kakashi was smiling at the progress he was making in the mini-me project and eye-smiled and replied "All in good time, speaking of time you want to go extra late?"

"Sure, we can get another game done" said Naruto and they continued playing.

* * *

"WHERE ARE THEY?" an irate Mebuki Haruto yelled at the top of her lungs to the ANBU.

The ANBU in question was the one that got a lesson from his senpai and told them, "They were in the middle of a training session so they said they will come after they are done".

"ITS BEEN 6 HOURS! WHAT KIND OF GAME TAKES THAT LONG!" shrieked banshee senior at the ANBU. The ANBU in question had the knowledge to buy a pair of earplugs at the department store on the way here so was looking at her blankly. Actually he had his eyes closed and was sleeping and woke up every now and then when her voice was loud enough to be just heard as a quiet muffle and he gave an automated response when that happened. All he had to do to guard them was to stand there. If someone did attack them he might get a medal from the hokage for not doing his job.

Eventually a relaxed Kakashi and Naruto came into the room holding take-out from Ichirakus.

"WE CALLED FOR THE TWO OF YOU HOURS AGO. YOUR TARDINESS IS UNACCEPTABLE AND I WILL..." she started but Kakashi had his face in his books and gave his classic response when she was done.

"Huh, sorry did you say something?" asked Kakashi.

While they finished their meals, the council had ordered the ANBU to fetch them something to eat. He said that his duties were to guard the council and thus couldn't leave his position. They were angry at the ANBU at not obeying and started to throw a fit and threatened to demote him but the ANBU stood there like a statue, asleep in his happy place.

"Where is the old man?" asked Naruto in confusion as his seat was empty.

"His presence is not needed" said Koharu curtly.

"Excuse me? To judge a ninja it is required by law that the Shinobi council is present and it is a must for the Hokage to be present. Should you continue with this farce you will be executed for illegal tampering with military resources" said Kakashi sharply and opened his sharingan eye as a threat.

The elders frowned at him and had not counted on his presence at this time. The plan was simple, get Naruto kicked out of the shinobi program and then Danzo would enlist him into ROOT and become for more useful than under Hiruzen but now...

"WE DON'T NEED TO WASTE THE TIME OF HOKAGE-SAMA AND THE SHINOBI COUNCIL TO DEAL WITH THE DEMON..." a nameless council member started but didn't get very far with a **Raikiri** to the heart, courtesy of Kakashi.

The civilian council started to scream death threats like a bunch of panicking 5 year olds until a thundering noise could be heard.

"SILENCE" roared Sarutobi as he walked into the council halls.

"Hokage-sama, Hatake has just killed a council member in front of all of us. He is to be charged with..." another council member started but didn't get far with a blast of killing intent from the Hokage,

"That councilman in question broke the law I set about anyone who speaks about the Kyuubi to Naruto and hence he broke an S-class law and the punishment is instant execution with no trial and furthermore you have no rights to dictate charges against MY shinobi. Attempts to do that again will be seen as military sabotage and result with a one-way trip to Ibiki and Anko. AM I CLEAR?" he stated loudly and radiated pure authority.

The civilian council whimpered at the sight of the Hokage and instantly gave in.

"Good now Kakashi has sent his summons to fetch the heads of the clans for whatever this meeting is about so we will wait for them" he said as he took up his seat.

"Hokage-sama they are busy people and we don't need..." started Homura but was cut off by Sarutobi, "Yes we do need them or drop whatever trumped up charges you all have made in this mockery of a trial".

Now the elders were ticked, with the full council the majority will be hard to get. The civilian council has one vote along with the elders each having one as well, the hokage has three and the heads of clans each have one. With them all present then this chance slips away.

Sarutobi looked in disdain at the elders and remembered that he had fought and bled alongside them, it was his weaker policies that let Konoha get weaker in their eyes and when he took the hat a second time from Minato he was determined to play hardball with his former teammates and the rest of these buffoons.

Kakashi had sen his dog summons in advance to all of them and attached a note to each of them explaining the truth and needless to say when they got here they were not in a good mood at having to waste time on this farce of a trial.

After an hour Shikaku was the last one to walk in, or more like sleepwalk in and flopped into his seat.

"Whatever this is about I vote to drop all charges" barked Tsume at the council.

"WE HAVEN'T EVEN STARTED YET" shrieked the banshee.

"And does it look like I want to sit through this?" snarked Tsume back at them while clutching her ears at the noise level of these morons.

"Ahem" coughed Danzo. After he got mostly everyones attention (Shikaku was asleep) he started "The proceedings is a trial against Uzumaki Naruto, genin"

"First charge, assault of a teammate Haruno Sakura twice. How do you plead" he asked and activated **Kotoamatsukami** secretly under his bandages. He wouldn't be able to use it for a while but the opportunity has to be seized.

Kurama, from the seal, detected a foreign genjutsu but couldn't tell from what but he disrupted Naruto's chakra completely and broke the genjutsu.

"Not guilty" he said.

Danzo looked stoic but inside he was seething at the fact that Shisui's genjutsu had no effect on Naruto and Koharu and Homura looked at Danzo in confusion before they all came to the conclusion that this was the Kyuubi's work.

Our least favourite side burst like a volcano after that.

"HE'S LYING HOKAGE-SAMA" shrieked Mebuki over all the noise.

Naruto repled cooly, "It was self defence. During the mission Haruno attempted to punch me on the head and I decided to not take this abuse anymore and twisted her arm back. After I let go she tripped over her own feel and fell. The second time I made a kage bunshin behind her and kawarimied with it and as it burst into smoke after she punched it she tripped and fell again".

"LIES HOKAGE-SAMA" the civilians yelled.

"We can have Sasuke-sama testify for this but Uzumaki cannot undergo a check from a Yamanaka because of his "condition"" Danzo said as he smirked. That boy was easy to manipulate, just mention "power" and he would do it and the Kyuubi was the perfect excuse to get rid of Inoichi and his problematic mind-walking.

"Or you can read Kakashi's report as the mission was documented from an elite jonin such as Kakashi who's word has far more weight than a genin. Both incidents were seen by Kakashi and he can testify and confirms Naruto's story. Furthermore, Naruto's mind and memories are safe to inspect by a Yamanaka as the seal is designed by Minato and someone experienced such as Inoichi can easily obtain information from Naruto's mind" said Sarutobi while smirking.

Ok that last bit was a sort of lie but with Kurama having a change of heart that last part is possible and its not like they are fuuinjutsu masters to know about that last part being a lie.

"All who vote for charges to be dropped?" asked Sarutobi as he and all of the clan heads raised their hands, "By a majority the charges are dropped".

The shinobi council looked happy to leave but Danzo spoke up again, "Those are not all the charges" he said and the shinobi's groaned and sat back down.

"The second charge is denying Sasuke-sama the knowledge of a jutsu and the boy stealing a B-rank kinjutsu, how do you plead" he said while smirking as he had Hiruzen trapped.

"The first one, guilty and the second one is a high A-rank secret" he replied.

As soon as guilty came out of his mouth the civilians started to celebrate but Choza spoke up, "How is denying him a jutsu a charge? Demanding a jutsu is illegal so he has every right to deny."

"Sasuke-sama..." one civilian started but was stopped by Hiashi.

"Is breaking a law set forth upon the founding of the village if this continues he will lose all rights of the name Uchiha and the second one is a secret that only the Hokage and Shinobi council know about and have already discussed so there is no charge at all" he replied curtly. He knew Naruto was Minato's son and wanted to help him like Minato did for him many times, but sleeping with his daughter is pushing it.

"The third charge" and all the shinobi groaned again "is for sleeping with Hinata-sama of the Hyuuga clan".

"That's not even a charge" said Shikaku, visibly ticked that his nap was ruined by his least favourite activity of being a clan head, "If Hiashi wanted to do something he would have done so in private".

"You're right" Hiashi stated and stared at Naruto, "This is a matter of the Hyuuga clan and I do not press charges as both sides volunteered and nothing happened that night and Hinata's attitude has visibly improved by leaps and bounds after their...time together. I don't press charges as the head of the Hyuuga clan and her father but we will be having words about your intentions to my daughter".

Naruto stared back at him and replied, "She is my friend and one of my precious people who I would die to protect with my life on the line. I want to be her friend and maybe more if she likes me back. But if not I am happy to be her friend" he started in a strong tone but grew weaker as he stared at his face and rushed the last part.

By all rights Hiashi should be mad as a father but he knew Naruto meant the first part with all his heart but after hearing the next bit he inwardly groaned at the denseness of the child before him. He remembered how far Kushina had to go to get through to Minato and sighed inwardly that the denseness was hereditary. The rest of the shinobi council wanted to burst out laughing as he was exactly the same as Minato with women and had the guts to say that to Hiashi of all people.

Danzo heard what he said and filed it away. It would be near impossible to manipulate the heir of the most prestigious clan in Konoha. He was hoping that his obsession with the Haruno's daughter would continue and to use it as a proxy to get to him but after recent events Hinata was more likely to be the heir now with her newfound strength and that cut him off from the jinchuuriki again.

The civilians were beyond irate at what they saw as the demon stealing the princess of Konoha.

"HIASHI-SAMA HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND. YOU'RE LETTING THE DEMON STEAL THE HEIR TO THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS CLAN AWAY FROM SOMEONE LIKE SASUKE-SAMA!" a civilian started but was cut off from a burst of KI from the Hokage.

"Kakashi, execute the council member" he told sharply and in a burst of speed a Raikiri ended him.

Hiashi was already in a bad mood from his elders giving him a headache and now he had to deal with the civilians constant attempts to give his daughter away to a power hungry monster. He replied in a dark voice, "There is no way I am letting a power hungry madman near my daughter".

Contrary to the popular beliefs he loved his daughter Hinata very much as she was exactly like his late wife. He had to be hard on her not just because of the elders but also the fact that she was the best chance to remove the Caged Bird Seal as she was loved by both branches of the clan. If he tried then he would be mocked as a hypocrite considering what happened to Hizashi. Hanabi was slowly falling away from his hands and started to think more like the clan elders as she was afraid of the seal being branded on her so Hinata was the only chance at fulfilling Hizashi's dream.

His tone made the headless chickens shut up immediately.

"The next charge" as Danzo smirked and used his ace in the hole, "Uzumaki using the powers of the beast".

If the civilians weren't acting like headless chickens before, now they acted like Naruto was a bomb and tried to rush away.

"HELP! THE DEMON IS FREE!" was one of the popular yells before the Hokage gave a burst of KI.

"As Kakashi has already explained in his report and I have stated several times that this is supposed to happen" Hiruzen started, "The seal is in no way breaking as I have checked. Furthermore I have already explained it to you all that the seal is designed to let Naruto access its power in certain situations and Naruto can channel the Kyuubi's power to use in a fight. It was because of that he saved the "esteemed Sasuke-sama" and helped free Wave country from an evil tycoon and this has given us several trading contracts with Wave, which is a hub for trading between all the nations and has boosted our economy. Do any of you still doubt a seal designed by MINATO of all people because of your fear of the Kyuubi?" he explained to the council.

This went over the civilian councils head but the Shinobi council knew better and saw the whole situation and voted to drop the charge.

Everyone looked at Danzo who was still trying to get Naruto as he started, "In light of recent events I believe that it would be wiser for me to take the boy, Hiruzen. I will help the boy get control over his emotions to better control the Kyuubi and...".

He was cut off by Kakashi, "I am already doing that and since I was instructed by the Yondaime in his fuinjutsu techniques I can help monitor the seal and teach Naruto about controlling his emotions and from the whole proceedings, it looks like I have done a good job".

"Agreed Kakashi-san, Naruto-san back then would be jumping up and down and yelling like the Civilians but now I see a proper ninja ready to take on the world" Shibi said in his usual monotone.

"We agree" said Inoichi and Choza and Shikaku raised his hand in agreement. The rest of the clan heads nodded as well.

Danzo fumed that a perfect opportunity to get the jinchuuriki in his hands failed and he was back to square one and Sarutobi smirked at putting Danzo in his place.

"Very well, now if the civilians and elders would please stay behind to explain to me why my ANBU are being used as their own manservants for a while. I would like the Shinobi council to go to the private back room along with Naruto and Kakashi" he ordered and the civilians were visibly sweating at having their hands caught in the cookie jar. The Shinobi council smirked at this and remembered one basic fact about the Hokage. If someone tried to hurt Naruto then he would destroy them by any means necessary and they moved to the back room.

The room was slightly smaller than the council chambers and the walls were black with complex fuuinjutsu patterns designed by Mito-sama during the village's founding for holding secure information and they waited for about 30 minutes.

During that time they could hear a lot of screaming and protests and denials as the room was designed to block out noise going outside but let in noise from the outside and were trying to picture what was going on back there. As the Hokage walked in he had a slight spring in his step. He explained that he charged them for abusing military resources and removed the votes of the civilian council and the elders as they were in on this as well.

"Ok now this is actually something important. Naruto-kun, me and Kurama-san discussed that we should tell the truth about what happened that night. These shinobi before you are capable of understanding the truth. Can you please make a kage bunshin and channel Kurama's consciousness into it?" the Hokage spoke in a serious tone. All the shinobi were all ears as this tone and room meant that there was a serious threat to Konoha.

"Ok jiji" and he made a Kage Bunshin and channeled Kurama's consciousness into it. The kage bunshin eyes became red and slitted and the whisker marks became thicker.

 **"Sup?"** Kurama-Naruto said in his deep voice.

The shinobi were visibly freaking out at the Kyuubi and were about to fight before Sarutobi spoke up and said "WAIT! I CAN EXPLAIN!" and he gestured Kurama to tell them the truth of what happened at that night from his point of view.

"So you mean that the whole thing was done by a rogue Uchiha, with some relation to Madara and he's still running around god knows where" said Shikaku, being the first to break out of surprise.

"Yes and it follows a note Minato left me and the story is the truth" said Sarutobi as he showed the note and it described the masked man and confirmed Kurama's story.

"So Kurama-san was only used as a pawn to this mans agenda and he is still roaming the nations with the power to control the bijuu" summarised Shibi.

 **"It hurts when you say it so bluntly, insect man"** Kurama said, **"But none of my brothers and sisters can be controlled easily from a seal. Only from Isobu, the Sanbi, downwards is it possible."**

"As far as we know the Ichibi, Shukaku is sealed inside the Kazekage's son and the Nibi is sealed inside a young ninja from Kumo so it is unlikely that they are of use to him. The Sanbi has yet to reform and will do so in three years so there are no bijuu that he can control at this moment." Inoichi said from reading the notes that the espionage system have gathered over the years.

"Wait just a minute. Did you say the Sanbi and his host can be controlled from the seal?" asked Shikaku.

 **"Yeah. Their mental strength would not be enough to hold against the masked man as I was under his control and I know the level of strength of my siblings and him and even inside the most secure of seals they would be** **controlled by that man** " Kurama replied.

"Then I think we may have to look into Kiri for leads on the masked man" Shikaku said gravely and everyone turned to him.

He elaborated, "Didn't you remember the sudden change in the Yondaime Mizukage all of a sudden as he announced his bloodline purges against his own people. The other nations were shocked at the mad decision by the Mizukage and we ourselves have questioned him about such actions but have had no reply. That was the biggest mystery that no one could solve but from what Kurama-san has told us it is possible that the Masked Man is behind this".

"But why would the masked man do that to Kiri. They have very little relations to Madara as far as we knew" Choza asked in confusion at his friend.

"A base" he said, "He was probably looking for a place to be in to keep a low profile and by making the Mizukage a puppet he could weaken Kiri by making them focus on these purges and use Kiri for whatever he has planned. He could also use it to amass power without the world knowing as the Mizukage's office was cut off and he would use that place for his own purposes. The attack on Konoha was just a warm-up for whatever he has planned and from what he is capable of doing, he could easily start a shinobi world war".

Hiruzen was shaking at the madness of this person and the thousands of lives he has ruined because of his nefarious plans. Naruto was shedding tears at the fact that this man was responsible for making Haku's like horrible and had done this to thousands of innocent people.

"Do we tell Kiri about this?" Tsume asked.

"That is a bad idea. One, we only have the proof from a bijuu and a scribbled note from Minato. Two, we know very little about the masked man and our theories are basless. Three, Kiri could blame us for what has happened as it was an Uchiha that did this. Overall that is a bad idea. We should reveal him when he makes his next big move and attempt to unmask him there to the world. He clearly likes the shadows so if we bring him to the light then Kumo is certain to respond at the risk of their bijuu being controlled, Kiri would swear to kill him for all he has done to their nation, Konoha will aim to defeat this masked man and by proxy we will have Suna's aid. The only risk is Iwa but even Onoki wouldn't want to side with one man when four nations are against him. Overall it would be wiser to wait." Hiashi told Tsume and the rest of them.

"And what about telling the truth about the attack? Should we tell the people and the other villages?" asked Choza.

"Choza-san, if we tell the truth then the Masked Man will be alerted that Naruto-kun can communicate and work with Kurama-san and that could cause him to be on his guard, especially as his current location is unknown as the rebels have seized control over Kiri so the Masked Man must have left. But if we edit that section out and I can claim that Minato left a document that was recently discovered with his signature on it confirming the truth about the events then we are in business. And technically he did, his chicken scrawl handwriting is all over this note along with a signature" said the Hokage while smiling that they can have an excuse to search for the masked man in the other nations and place him in the bingo book and have the other villages hunt him down as well in fear that the man may take over their bijuu as well if he can control the strongest one.

The shinobi's smirked at the Hokage's quick thinking.

 **"Old man, you have the mind of a fox. Welcome to the club"** Kurama-Naruto said while giving a fanged grin.

"Now does anyone else have to add anything?" asked Hiruzen.

"Umm jiji I want to ask something" Naruto said with his hand up.

"Yes Naruto-kun" the Hokage asked.

"What was with the old man with bandages in his eye?" Naruto asked.

The shinobi visibly tensed at who Naruto was asking about.

"Naruto-kun, that man is Danzo. A war veteran who fought alongside me but over time we had different paths, I wanted to seek peace while he wanted Konoha to reign supreme over the four nations. Our disagreements peaked and he actively conspires against me, although I can't prove it. This is classified information and I tell you this to protect you, that man will use you to further his own goals and the shinobi you caught in my office was from him although he places a seal on their tounges to stop them from talking and giving evidence against him. Stay away from that man" Sarutobi told him gravely.

"Kurama, did you sense what I sensed?" Naruto asked.

 **"We have the same senses, kit and yes I did"** Kurama-Naruto replied.

"Naruto-kun what is it?" the Hokage asked, puzzled.

"On his bandaged eye I thought I sensed a sharingan just like sensei's. It tried to put me in a genjutsu and make me say guilty to the first charge but Kurama was able to break it. He also had sharingans all over his bandaged arm and his arm felt weird too" Naruto said.

If Hiruzen wasn't angry before, now he was furious.

"WHAT!" he roared in anger.

"That Danzo, I'm willing to bet that he pilfered the bodies of the dead Uchiha after the massacre to take some eyes from them. But why so many and what do you mean his arm was weird?" Shikaku asked.

 **"I think I know, kit. I share your senses and I sensed the exact same thing once before. That arm was exactly like Hashirama's arm, I could feel the dratted Mokuton chakra flowing through it"** Kurama said gravely, **"And for all the eyes, I think I know why he has that too. He probably wants to use Izanagi, an ancient kinjutsu of the Uchihas. It is an incredibly powerful jutsu that allows one to break the boundary of illusion and reality and allows one to rewrite fate. A user of Izanagi can control their state of existence to a degree for a brief moment. Any injury, even fatal or if not on the person in question will fade away as an illusion and return back to reality. In other words in a fight he cheats death. To use Izanagi to its full potential one must have Senju DNA or a Senju arm in his case to extend the time to one minute. And I counted 10 eyes so ten minutes. But Izanagi comes at a huge price of losing ones eyesight permanently and even a transplant won't save you. I know this from all the times that cursed clan tried to control me and my siblings during the war between the Uchiha and Senju and we had to deal with this technique and learnt about it from torturing a user we found."**

The other shinobi were shocked that the Uchiha's had such a powerful genjutsu but Hiruzen was looking down in shame at how far Danzo will go to seek power for himself, even if it means turning himself to a monstrosity.

"This has Orochimaru written all over it" Inoichi spat.

"Agreed, but sadly not proven. There is no rule against strengthening oneself as you provide consent and there is no proof linking it to Orochimaru. If we can find that then we have him" Hiruzen said while shaking at mentioning another failure in his life.

"Do the other elders know about this or are they in on Danzo's schemes as well?" Tsume asked.

"Most likely the latter as I saw them looking at Danzo when Naruto said "Not guilty" so they knew that he was trying to manipulate Naruto but there is no proof that they know about his sharingans" Kakashi said as he saw the scene right next to Naruto.

Hiruzen was angrier than he has ever been after all the revelations in one day. The masked man, Danzo, Koharu, Homura and Orochimaru. So many enemies but only one of him. Naruto saw how he was feeling and decided to cheer him up.

"Jiji, don't give up now. We know these creeps are trying to make the world a worse place. They want to start wars and create more hate and pain but now we know and we will take those creeps down. Believe it!" Naruto said while looking at Hiruzen.

Sarutobi looked at Naruto and for a second Minato could be seen as he also had a gift of rallying strength in his friends and allies when all hope seemed lost and the other ninjas could see it as well. Sarutobi thanked Naruto for his words of support and stood back up again as a Hokage should.

"I have a question. Its troublesome but is there a counter to **Izanagi**?" Shikaku asked, "Or do we have to kill the old man ten times to put him down for good?"

 **"Yes and No"** Kurama-Naruto said, " **There is a counter to Izanagi and it is Izanami. Izanami does the opposite of Izanagi. If Izanagi is something that changes fate then Izanami is something that decides it. It is a technique that targets the user through physical sensations and the sharingan is used like a camera to record that sensation and the user replicates that same sensation with their sharingan. A user causes an overlap of the sensation felt by the opponent and the sensation recorded by the user and they can do this for multiple sensations for greater effects. It then alters the flow of time between these events and creates an everlasting loop of events that keep on repeating in the opponents consiousness until they accept their fate. It will not respond to Izanagi and the opponent is trapped until they accept their fate and like Izanagi it also causes blindness with the same conditions as before. But that would be difficult to cast as the only sharingan user here is Kakashi but he has no Senju DNA and can't use the technique and it will be a cold day in hell before I teach that pampered brat anything so it would be easier to kill him ten times but if we find a way to use Izanami then he is done for."**

The others were shocked at another powerful jutsu from the Uchihas but agreed that killing him ten times was the only course of option for now, Sarutobi was thinking that Itachi may be his only hope at putting Danzo in **Izanami** but that would be near impossible to do.

"Ok everyone I need hardly remind you that everything in this room is a high S-class secret so breaking it will result in immediate death" Sarutobi said as he looked gravely at the others. The others nodded immediately as this information could change the Elemental Nations.

Naruto and the others left the room and building, preparing to face what was to come.

 _ **AND DONE. THE STORY IS MOVING FORWARDS AND I WANTED THE OTHERS TO BE MORE WARY OF DANZO SO THAT I HAVE A REASON TO BRING HIM IN A BIT MORE, HIRUZEN WILL BE LOOKING OUT FOR OBITO MORE SO THAT MEANS OBITO IS PLACED ON THE LIST OF CHARACTERS AFTER TIME SKIP BECAUSE I FEEL THAT NARUTO WILL BE BETTER PREPARED AFTER THE TIMESKIP. HOPEFULLY I REDEEMED KURENAI. THE COUNCIL BASHING IS A CLASSIC THAT I LOVE. I WANT NARUTO TO BE AT AROUND THE SAME LEVEL IN GOMU, SWORDS, ROKUSHIKI AND LEG FIGHTING STYLE. THE YAMI YAMI NO MI IS GOING TO BE OVERPOWERED SO IM SAVING THAT UP AND HAKI WILL COME AFTER TIMESKIP BUT A TOUCH IN TSUNADE RETRIVAL BUT HE WON'T BE USING IT AT LUFFY LEVEL IMMEDIATELY, ONLY A TINY BIT. BYE!**_


	5. Chapter 5: Chunin exams - 1

**Naruto: The Dark Rubber Ninja**

Summary:

After the wave mission Naruto rethinks life as a ninja and and questions his purpose. That stray thought created ripples that changed the entire world be it for better or worse. Now after finding the yami yami no mi and gomu gomu no mi the future is in his hands. Sasu/Saku/council bashing and NaruHina. Smarter and stronger Naruto. Rated T.

 **Jutsu/summons/bijuu/creepy inner banshee spirits: Bold**  
 _Thoughts: Italics/writing  
Luffy: Underline and_ italics  
Emphasis in speech: Underline

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or One Piece. Please review and give me advice to improve.**

 **Lightningblade49:**

 **I have plans for Danzo. Right now they can only be wary of him and try to dig up as many pieces of information as they can but the ball is in Danzo's court. He may be an enemy now but he's not as powerful as you think as the rest of Konoha has information on him and his abilties so when their fight comes Danzo will be at a disadvantage.**

 **gamelover41592:**

 **Umm what other thing do you mean? Can you be more specific? Well whatever it is it will come either in the training time before the chunin finals if its a small thing or after time skip.**

 **za worlda:**

 **That's actually an interesting idea to give Hinata a devil fruit. Right now I'm not sure as both hana hana no mi (Robins' fruit) and mero mero no mi (Hancock's fruit) are good ones so I will put up a poll later in the story to decide.**

 **lifewillbelife42:**

 **You make a valid point and thank you for giving me some critical advice. I aimed for Naruto to get a base in all these techniques and he will continue to mastery on them much later (the order I listed them last chapter may give you a hint at the mastery order). I want him to have a base and then proceed to master them. Not master them in one go and I'm sorry if it looked that way. He isn't learning all rokushiki styles that early. I wanted to give him supplementary ones and not everything and also just because he can use it doesn't mean it will be overpowered. Like Kaku in CP9 cut the tower with a rankyaku he won't be doing that, he will just use the attack and that gives him a variable move set that I can combine with others to give more powerful combos like rankyaku + fuuton chakra. Also I do make a point that he will be strong but I don't want him to be overpowered. Yes I am leveling him up a bit quickly but he will be fighting enemies and beat them without luck (e.g. Kyuubi giving Naruto chakra when he fought Neji) and also his friends will also get stronger from Naruto being an inspiration. Also just because he can overpower an opponent easily doesn't mean he will eg. remember when Zoro was fighting at Fishman Island when they fought 50,000 fish men. If he wanted to he could Sanzen Sekai Hody and everyone else and be done with it but that will kill them, he had to tone it down to not kill them. That is what I want Naruto to be like. Sorry about NaruHina but I'm not the greatest at romance so I went with the easiest pairing, its for new guys like me so I can get a better handle on it. And besides I think it's cute anyway.**

 **psychopath556:**

 **Thank you. I will try to give Kakashi a big brother role but by popular demand the mini-me is here to stay so sorry. Naruto has yet to find out about Minato so that's a no go for now.**

Chapter 5: Chunin exams - 1

It has been a week since the council meeting and Naruto was still thinking about the Masked Man and what he could be up to now. Kurama told him to forget about him for now as there is no point in thinking about him as we need to wait for him to make a move and the most they can do now is stay vigilant and kep their guard up for when he does make his move. Meanwhile a lot changed in the village and the elemental nations.

* * *

In Kumo the Raikage was blowing a fuse in anger at Konoha's revelation and yelled that they should have found out sooner. He immediately withdrew Yugito and Bee and kept them close as he was visibly worried that the Masked Man could use them to lay waste to Kumo. That man was placed immediately in the bingo book with a kill at all costs but refused Konoha's help as A didn't trust Konoha to help out in a problem created by them in the first place.

In Kiri they were still recovering from overthrowing the Mizukage but they started to make connections between the Masked Man that Konoha reported and some records that they have from torturing Yagura's most trusted officers and confirmed his presence in Kiri. They opted to open up communication with Konoha and were willing to assist them in hunting this man down. Mei's advisor, Ao, was against the idea of opening relations with Konoha so soon but she explained that this man was responsible for the Kyuubi attack and took the life of their Yondaime Hokage so by opening relations using him as a proxy it would also be a way to open relations to Konoha, something Sarutobi was delighted by. He was placed in the bingo book as dead but alive had more money as they wanted to interrogate him. They had no jinchuuriki as the Sanbi was reforming and Utakata, the rokubi jinchuuriki, was a missing nin so they were at no immediate threat for now.

In Suna the news of this man was just news. With the upcoming invasion of Konoha this man could be a useful deterrent and resolved to negotiate with him in secret but keep Gaara away from him as he could easily control Shukaku and use their bijuu against them. They placed him in the bingo book but only as a capture alive to see if they could work with him. The Kazekage was against this decision of working with him as he could not trust a man powerful enough to control bijuu and overruled the council and edited the book as dead or alive.

In Iwa the Tsuchikage, Onoki was thinking hard about this man. His council reasoned that if things go south with Konoha this man could be a useful ally but Onoki stubbornly refused and said there is no way in hell that he was teaming with anyone with relations to someone as treacherous as Madara, heck he would sooner team up with Konoha than do something that dumb. He agreed to Hiruzen's request to have this mans head on a platter and Onoki decided he would sleep a lot safer knowing that the man that can control bijuu is dead as Iwa has two bijuu. Han was difficult to deal with as he hated everyone with a passion and Roshi was an old coot like him and sat around doing nothing. Both men are not kept under watch or used much in battles as Onoki refused to rely on a loose cannon like Jinchuuriki and no one wanted to go near them but this Masked Man could easily take over their bijuu and have them rampage in Iwa so this creep is going on the bingo book as just kill him.

In Taki Shibuki was very worried. Their jinchuuriki Fuu was ostracized by the village and he had tried to stop it but to no avail. This man reported by Konoha could easily take over the Nanabi and cause it to go on a rampage and Taki didn't have the strength to fight back something that powerful at this time so he as well agreed to place this man in their bingo book as wanted dead.

* * *

Overall, Hiruzen was pleased with himself that the masked man's movement was now limited with the world as his enemy. He was expecting A's response to accept help from Konoha to be shot down, Kumo always do everything on their own and their Raikages are all stubborn hotheads. He was pleased that Kiri was opening relations and they could gain a valuable ally as time went on. He was slightly suspicious of Suna as Jiraiya's spies reported that originally he was wanted alive. That was odd as the man could easily control Shukaku and the only reason they would want him alive is to ally with him, something Hiruzen grew very suspicious of and got Jiraiya to get as much information on the recent happenings of Suna as early as possible. Iwa was a surprise that Onoki was willing to work with him but he knew that even Onoki wouldn't trust an unknown like the Masked Man and wanted him dead as fast as possible as he had two bijuu in his village. Taki immediately wanted him dead as they had a high level bijuu but not much manpower at this time so if the Masked Man controls the Nanabi and makes it go on a rampage Taki could be destroyed.

If only he had more luck inside his village.

Civilians were, of course, panicking and orders for Naruto to be banished or executed were coming in by the dozen but no matter how many times he tells those idiots that banishing him will mean that the Masked Man will get the Kyuubi much easier and attack Konoha again. Killing him will mean that the Kyuubi will reform in Konoha and the masked man will control it and kill them all, they just didn't listen.

The civilian council had much less power but still attended all meetings and voiced out their opinions loudly. Once the Masked Man was announced then he was nearly deafened. They wanted to stop this information spreading as it tarnished the name of the Uchihas but Hiruzen had already sent what they know. Then there was another shriek and Hiruzen was almost deafened for sure by that one.

The elders were seriously annoying him and he was really close to summoning Emna and breaking their bones as they wanted to capture him alive and use him to help re-establish the Uchiha clan and Hiruzen was wondering if they missed the part where he razed Konoha with a bijuu but remembered that they disliked Minato as he was always trying his best to get rid of them and the council so must have been a bit happy at his death. He realised that they wanted him alive as he could control the bijuu and use him to control Kurama and wage war on the other nations.

On the streets at least Naruto's life was showing some improvement as the villagers and ninja could no longer resent him for holding the beast that killed their loved ones as the beast was under the control of this man but the villagers still didn't want to take the chance that the Kyuubi could kill them all but most ninja followed the Hokage's reasoning and agreed that banishing or killing him was a dumb idea and no longer treated him like the attack was his fault.

On the other hand the esteemed "Sasuke-sama" was at the brunt of a lot more hatred and disdain as it was a member of his clan that nearly caused Konoha to be destroyed. Of course being so used to their pampering treatment this was a change for him and he was visibly annoyed at the civilian morons for treating him like this. The civilian council and elders were always there to shower the Uchiha with whatever he asked for and so did their best to try and curb the attitude of the civilians and try to redirect it back to Naruto. The first part was a partial success but the second part didn't work out so will with everyone realising that the Kyuubi was not responsible for the attack and was a mindless pawn to the masked man.

Sasuke was seething at the villagers. Even though he got the pampering treatment he could see the look of fear in their eyes and suspicion against the Uchiha. He was wondering more about the Masked Man and if he came across him he would demand to know how to control bijuu and if he had that power Itachi would be helpless.

When Naruto saw how they were treating Sasuke he tried to get them to stop because Sasuke was getting the same treatment he did and that is not what he wanted but the civilians never listened to him and Sasuke took it as a sign of weakness and scoffed at the dobe.

Sakura was visibly shocked that Naruto was still a ninja as her mother assured her that Naruto-baka would be kicked out of the shinobi program. Although it was a lost cause, Danzo tried to convince Mebuki to use her daughter to control Naruto but with his **Kotoamatsukami** out of commission he couldn't just make her do it and Mebuki stubbornly refused to let her "princess" near the demon. She was still useless so that didn't change.

Sakura was a die-hard fan girl and refused to let this Masked Man ruin Sasuke-kun's reputation. She claimed loudly that she would find him and beat him and bring him to Sasuke-kun so he can copy everything he needs and then kill him. (Kakashi and Naruto looked as if she was deranged and the only way she could do that was to get an ultimate godlike hack from the author before feeling a mysterious voice reassure that it won't happen).

Shikaku was sifting through all the information they had on this man and tried to predict his moves but with so little to go on it was hard, even with the information Kiri sent but they already knew about that.

Sarutobi had Jiraiya also look into the Masked Man's identity but left out the part where it was Kurama that told them because Kurama was specific that on no account will Jiraiya know about him until he gets a shot at his nuts and Sarutobi was a reasonable man and felt that Jiraiya did deserve it and it was a small price to pay to get Kurama's co-operation so he agreed.

Overall Konoha was changing but in retrospect the whole elemental nations were changing and the with the Chunin exams coming up they had to be more prepared than ever.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Ame. Obito was seething at the fact that his identity was revealed to the elemental nations.

"Curse you Minato. Even in death you still make my life miserable," he spat venomously to himself.

"Someone's sulking" White Zetsu said in a mocking tone as the two of them materialised out of the ground.

"Obito. You were too careless. Konoha is now alerted to your presence and so are the elemental nations. You are wanted dead by everyone" Black Zetsu said in a serious tone.

"It changes nothing. I have accomplished all I need to for now and all I need to do is to keep a low profile in Ame. The next steps are not going to take place for a while and my presence will only return much later in the plan" Obito said back at Zetsu, "You need to keep Nagato under watch as this could waiver his trust in me."

"What trust?" White Zetsu asked in mockery, "It's no secret that Konan and Nagato have zero trust in you and will probably backstab you".

"Just keep an eye on them. For now everything continues as planned and this one setback changes nothing" Obito snapped back at the two and they disappeared back into the ground leaving Obito alone to his thoughts.

* * *

"Chunin exams?" Naruto asked his voice muffled.

Why was his voice muffled? He recently discovered a problem where in his henge jutsus into other people his whisker marks may sometimes be on his face and that was problematic so he had to save up enough to by a face-mask made of chakra conducting material so that it would follow the charkra as he makes a henge. He got a black face mask that covers all of his face other than his eyes. During training and missions he wears it but outside he takes it off as it gets too stuffy in that. Of course when Kakashi saw it he sobbed unashamedly while hugging his new mini-me in the making. _Lateness-check, Icha-Icha-in progress, face mask-check, cool hair-not started._ he thought as he kept a mental list of how to convert Naruto to a mini-me. He reached a milestone and took Naruto to ramen and unveiled the secret to his through-the-mask eating trick but he asked the Author to edit that part out and since he said "please" the Author agreed. "Ok Naruto the secret to eating through a mask is..."

(removed section)

"Yes, the chunin exams are coming up and I have nominated the three of you for the exams. I am going to get the forms at a later day but I just wanted to give you a heads up" Kakashi said as the ate ramen together.

"But we have almost zero teamwork and doesn't the chunin exams look for that?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah I know but I am hoping by some miracle you get to the final round. Naruto, you are at chunin level right now in tactics, strength and overall abilities and I hope you can find a way to make it to that point. Once you do then you will be able to be promoted to chunin because keeping you as a genin is a total waste." Kakashi said as he slurped ramen using his unknown technique.

"Well I guess its worth a shot. Do I show my abilties?" Naruto asked.

"Your Gomu powers are well developed enough and the rest of the techniques you can show but your Yami powers should be kept secret until you reach a higher level with them unless there is an emergency where you have to show it or like any ninja, use it but don't get caught" he replied curtly.

"Hai sensei" Naruto said.

* * *

"Ok my cute little genin, now I am going to teach you some jutsus" Kakashi said and handed out chakra paper. He then explained about how it works and what nature affinities are. With a short outburst from Sakura saying that Naruto wouldn't understand this and should go away, Naruto then recited everything Kakashi said with full detail and Sasuke ordered her to shut up as she was wasting time and she immediately simmered down after that. Kakashi explained that it was easier to learn jutsus of your affinity and told them that he would be teaching them jutsus for their affinity.

Sasuke tested his affinity and found he had a lightning with a secondary for fire and looked visibly smug at having two affinities.

Sakura had a water affinity and with her chakra control Kakashi knew she could be a medic but it was a dead end to make her work and didn't want to send her to the hospital to learn as the people there are already in enough suffering and didn't deserve a shrieking banshee bursting their eardrums.

Naruto's affinity was strange.

His paper cut itself into four pieces cleanly and one piece soaked itself, another caught fire, the third became a strange gum like substance and the last became pitch black.

Naruto and Kakashi knew very well what the last two meant but the other genin didn't and were not supposed to know.

"Well Naruto, I think you have an affinity for wind, water and fire but the other two are a mystery to me so I guess in total you have 5 affinities. The black could be a high affinity to yin chakra which is strange but good job!" Kakashi said.

Sasuke was livid that he was outdone again by the dobe at the number of affinities. He had all the affinities to counter his own and some mysterious and unique new ones.

Sakura took Naruto's affinities as an affront to Sasuke-kun and yelled, "NARUTO-BAKA MUST HAVE CHEATED SENSEI, HOW COULD HE HAVE MORE AFFINITES THAN SASUKE-KUN".

Kakashi and Naruto winced at her voice and ignored her. Kakashi was thinking about Naruto's affinities, Minato-sensei had wind and Kushina-san had water but where did fire come from. He then remembered that Kurama could have been the source of the fire and perhaps as a result of eating the devil fruits and Kurama's chakra changing his DNA some latent recessive genes had awoken as it was very unlikely for a child to get both affinities from their parents. His wind was the strongest one as it happened first, it cut fully twice instead of just a tear and the edges were finely cut.

He had Sasuke work on **Katon: Hosenka no jutsu** which shoots multiple fireballs at an opponent. Even with the sharingan he could only perform the jutsu but to get to an acceptable level with it he had to train. Then he also showed **Katon: Ryuuka no jutsu** to keep him busy.

He tried to get Sakura to learn **Suiton: Mizurappa** but that was a lost cause as she kept losing focus and kept watching Sasuke-kun shoot fireballs.

Naruto was learning **Fuuton: Reppusho** and he nailed it with the use of Kage Bunshin training. It was focusing chakra on the palms of your hands and clapping to give a burst of wind. This can send a person flying and speed up any shuriken or kunai thrown at the opponent. He nailed it quickly so Kakashi decided to give Naruto something harder to do. He explained to Naruto that wind users were very rare and he didn't know many Wind jutsus so he was going to take him to someone who did. Sasuke was even more angry that Naruto had once again bested him and was getting private training.

He left the others with a Kage Bunshin to help them and went with Naruto to find Asuma.

* * *

As Naruto and Kakashi reached Team 10's training ground they were greeted with the sight of Ino's heavy complaints at having to work with Shikamaru and Choji. Choji was pigging out but was hurt by Ino's comments. Shikamaru was fast asleep in his happy place.

"Hey Kakashi, what is it?" asked Asuma as he sighed at his team.

Kakashi looked at him and felt sympathetic to the poor man at having a fan girl who refused to work but hey he had two decent ninjas whereas Kakashi had only one so Asuma still had it better.

"Hey Asuma. My cute little genin has a strong wind affinity and has learnt Fuuton: Reppusho in 2 hours to a chunin level so I was hoping you could start him on nature manipulation" Kakashi said while eye-smiling.

Asuma choked on his cigarette and spat it out. Shikamaru was paying close attention and so was Choji but Ino couldn't care less.

"NATURE MANIPULATION! Thats a jonin level skill, Kakashi! Have you lost your mind!" Asuma said in surprise.

"Trust me Asuma, I know what I'm doing. Now can you do it or not?" Kakashi said seriously.

"Well ok but this is not going to work, you know that right? Most jonin spend years trying to learn this!" Asuma said skeptically.

"HOW ON EARTH IS NARUTO OF ALL PEOPLE SUPPOSED TO LEARN A JONIN LEVEL SKILL. IT SHOULD BE SASUKE-KUN TAUGHT HOW TO DO THAT!" Ino yelled out and Shikamaru and Choji winced at their teammate.

Asuma sighed in frustration and Kakashi looked sympathetic. Why does Kurenai get an actual Kunoichi, while they are stuck with fangirls?

"Ok fine Kakashi" Asuma said.

"Good, now this is important." Kakashi said lightly and took a much darker tone as he moved towards Asuma with pure evil in his eyes, "If you make Naruto into a smoker, I will break into your house and burn every one of those imported cigarette packets you hide in the box under your closet."

"Umm...Kakashi? What's wrong with you" Asuma asked in worry as his fellow jonin looked as deranged as Gai.

"He is my mini-me in the making. You already have one with the Nara kid. He is as lazy as you are, add some cigarettes and a beard and you're done. I've invested a lot of time into this mini-me so if you corrupt him with your smoking habits I will make your life hell" he threatened in his dark tone.

"Ok Kakashi" Asuma said sweating, while inwardly freaking out at Kakashi's madness. Then he remembered how jealous Kakashi was that Gai had a mini-me and was always on the lookout to get his own.

"Good" he said in a light tone. He eye-smiled and wished them goodbye.

* * *

Asuma looked at Naruto and wondered if this day was a hallucination.

After Kakashi left he decided to get started early and after Naruto fails just teach him some wind jutsus and be done with it but sadly life never give you what you expect.

Asuma told him about the leaf cutting exercise and how to do it and he gave Naruto a leaf. Then Naruto made around 1000 shadow clones and made Asuma choke on his cigarette again. Each of them grabbed a leaf and started to do the leaf cutting exercise. Within 1 hour Naruto had a small cut on his leaf and Asuma decided to get open a new packet of cigarettes as there was something wrong with this one.

Within 10 hours Naruto was able to cut the leaf and now Asuma decided that imports are too dangerous, you never know what they add. Best stick to local brands. He then went to his house and threw out his cigarettes after Naruto finished the first exercise.

Shikamaru looked at Naruto in shock but decided to file it away. He had always had a suspicion about Naruto's mask. There were times where it slipped, where he could do things that normal academy students couldn't, even his first test paper should have scored high marks but didn't as the teacher marked harsher on him than any other student. Shikamaru always wondered why they were biased against him but now that he is a ninja, the mask comes off. But still this! What is he hiding under that mask?

Choji was wide eyed at the sudden change in Naruto. He couldn't even make 1 bunshin, since when could he make 1000 solid ones! But Choji knew that Naruto was a hard worker and had been working himself to the bone to reach this level and resolved to do the same.

Ino was looking in disbelief that the dead-last of their class was able to learn something that takes Jonin years in 11 hours. Her fangirl mind couldn't compute dead-last Naruto with this one. She had a backup program that activates in emergencies where it reminds the system that Sasuke could do it better but the program was starting to fail.

After Asuma came back he was still in shock. He took months to make a cut and even longer to cut the stupid leaf but a genin just did it in 11 hours! Sure he had shadow clones working with him and the memory feedback helps learning but still this is insane!

Naruto was visibly exhausted. Using shadow clones like this caused massive exhaustion and Naruto was almost about to collapse but Asuma and Shikamaru caught him. Shikamaru always knew that Naruto was the hard-working type but this, he looks half-dead! Then he remembered Naruto's impossible dream to be Hokage and protect the village. Is this how far Naruto or any serious ninja goes to get stronger for the village? Maybe he does need to work a bit more, just a bit.

They let him lie down for a few minutes and he was fast asleep holding a leaf split into two. Kakashi shunshinned behind Asuma after a while and when Asuma turned around he didn't need X-ray vision to tell he had one heck of a grin under his mask.

"Well?" he said in a slightly smug tone.

"Ok this is not normal. How on earth did a kid learn what takes Jonins months and years to learn!" Asuma exclaimed with wide eyes.

"So I take it by the cut leaf on his hand he mastered the leaf cutting exercise?" Kakashi said nonchalantly.

"You lucky devil. How did you get a genius like this kid?" he said in disbelief.

"NARUTO, A GENIUS! THAT'S THE DUMBEST THING I'VE EVER HEARD" exclaimed Ino but at a much lower voice than Sakura considering she's still rebooting and starting to doubt her fangirl instincts.

"You're so troublesome, Ino. Didn't you see what he did? He just mastered a highly advanced Jonin level chakra exercise that takes years for most ninja to learn. He is a genius all right. A genius of hard work." Shikamaru said wisely.

"You're right Shikamaru. Naruto used the **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu** , which is an extremely complex jutsu made by the Nidaime Hokage. This jutsu makes solid clones and when they dispel has a memory feedback to the user. But this training requires high chakra levels and godlike stamina and willpower as the jutsu also makes you feel the clone's exhaustion and too many memories can flow and break a mind so Naruto's willpower must be able to withstand everything coming into his mind. This form of training is specifically for Naruto, someone who will keep working to get stronger to protect those precious to him. The embodiment of the will of fire," Kakashi elaborated and said with pride.

Team 10 looked at the dead last of their class and were amazed by just how hard Naruto had worked to reach this far.

 _"Naruto, you're so troublesome."_ thought Shikamaru as he tried to wrap his head around the details but couldn't help but smile as that was just like Naruto. Great, now he has to work harder or he will feel guilty after what he saw. So troublesome...

 _"You show them, Naruto. Show them what failures like us can do and I won't fall behind either!"_ thought Choji in pride and steeled his resolve.

 _"Is this Naruto now? How far as he come and how far are we falling behind? Maybe dad was right, a real ninja has to work every day to get stronger to protect all they care for. It's settled I will get stronger and show them that I can protect everyone as well, guess I will have to put Sasuke on hold as I can't get stronger and attend his fan meetings"_ thought Ino as her fangirl mind seemed to crack and break until it shattered into tiny fragments.

(In the Torture and Interrogation department Inoichi felt like giving Naruto a man hug in appreciation and had no idea why. He shrugged it off any went back to mind walking.)

Meanwhile, Kakashi was contemplating how to wake up his cute little genin and went with the classic gag of dumping water on his head. He was about to ask Asuma to use a low powered Suiton jutsu until Asuma just decided to throw him in the river that was a few metres away from where Naruto was lying down.

After Asuma threw Naruto, he fell into the water with a hard splash and woke up from the delightful land of unconsciousness. After he got out he was visibly mad that his clothes were soaked and he was woken up. Kakashi wasted no time in throwing Asuma to the wolves as he went to great lengths to get a mini-me to like him and didn't want to lose it. Asuma looked sheepish as he saw Naruto wade out of the river and to the bank.

Luckily Naruto was wearing a specialised training outfit with polyesters and a bit of spandex so it dries quickly by just giving it a good shake and leaving it for a while as it doesn't absorb water. When he bought it and showed Kakashi, he saw spandex he immediately assumed the worst and summoned his dogs to hunt down Gai and he put a lot of emphasis on the word "hunt" so it sounded like "hurt". Naruto got through to Kakashi and told him that it had only a small portion of spandex and he wasn't turning into Gai because if he had to choose between being Kakashi's or Gai's mini-me, he would choose Kakashi in a heartbeat. Kakashi was visibly relieved by this but his dogs had already left. They went to stop the dogs but were too late and Gai was running around with three dogs, two biting each leg and one on the rear and was screaming at these "unyouthful" animals. Needless to say Gai wasn't happy to be bit for no good reason and Kakashi had to do 10 ridiculous challenges with Gai to make it up to him.

After he took off his shirt it showed a well toned chest with well developed muscles like a swimming athlete.

When Ino saw this her fangirl program was kicking back in again and mind was blown. Since when did Naruto become a hunk? He can't have become like this since graduation so he had to have had this for a while. But he always wore a stuffy orange jacket so no one knew unless you could see through clothes? See through clothes...? Hinata! She must have seen this with the byakugan and that explains why she was always blushing when looking at Naruto. Darn it, now that Naruto is seeing Hinata that option is shut down. The fangirl program died down again but had to give credit, _"Well played, Hinata"_. That isn't going to stop her from spreading this, she is still the gossip queen of Konoha!

After Naruto dried his clothes he put them back on and walked back to the group.

"Ok sensei, what else is there to this?" asked Naruto to Asuma.

Again he choked on his cigarette. Ok now he decided to not smoke around this kid he thought as he spat out a bit of ash. After that he said that the next exercise is way too advanced no matter what kind of genius you are. Kakashi also agreed and told Naruto that he only wanted to teach the first part of wind manipulation to give more power to his wind jutsus and the next part is something that would require a lot more training. He then told Naruto to try **Fuuton: Reppusho** and instead of knocking over a tree, he knocked over a tree and a boulder and another tree. Everyone stared wide-eyed at the jutsu's power and Asuma was thinking what would happen if Naruto learnt full wind manipulation.

Naruto was still tired although he didn't show it and Kurama was working on refilling his chakra reserves. Asuma was shocked at this kid's dedication but still told him to stop as it is dangerous to push a human body that far, jinchuuriki or not.

Kakashi shunshinned to Naruto's house with Naruto in tow and they waved goodbye to the still shocked team 10.

After Asuma got out of his surprise he shook his head at Kakashi's mini-me in the making and wondered if he could get that kind of result from trying to make Shikamaru his mini-me. Well, that doesn't matter for now he has a date with Kurenai and went to get ready.

* * *

After Naruto woke up in bed he climbed out and saw a healthy breakfast of whole grain cereal with oats, fruit and some bacon for his meat cravings that was still there a little bit every now and then.

He brushed his teeth, showered and ate his breakfast and washed up his dishes. Then he went to do the usual D-rank with Kakashi was praying to the sage that he speeds up time to bring the Chunin exams closer. The Author took pity at his character and decided to do so.

As the D-rank was over he left and found Hinata and was going to Ichiraku's and then caught sight of a square-shaped rock. Now he was an objective guy and remembered Konohamaru was a kid in the academy but still at that age even he wouldn't stalk someone with a SQUARE ROCK!

"Ok Konohamaru, you can come out now" he said while sighing, " _Please don't do the introduction. Hinata-chan is here!"._

Sadly he didn't get his wish. A sound of an explosion was heard and three kids stumbled out of the rock, coughing.

"I knew you would see through my disguise boss, you are my rival of course" Konohamaru said while picking himself up. He then did a ridiculous pose and so did the other two.

"My name is Udon and I like math" a kid in glasses said as he said in a dumb pose.

"My name is Moegi and I'm the sassiest kunoichi in the academy" the girl said also in a dumb pose.

"My name is Konohamaru, future Hokage" he said as he did an even dumber pose in between the other two.

"""And together, we're the Konohamaru corps""" the three said in unison.

Naruto wished that he was anywhere but here but the Author didn't feel like teleporting him. Hinata was giggling at the adorableness of these kids and knew that Naruto had something to do with this as they wore goggles on his head like he did as a kid.

"Naruto-kun, who are these children?" she asked while smiling.

"Woah boss, you got good taste is she your..." Konohamaru said while wiggling his pinky and smirking devilishly.

Both of them blushed hard at what Konohamaru was saying and looked away. Konohamaru was laughing that he got one up on the boss.

"Anyway, boss do you want to go play ninja with us. You can bring your girlfriend as well" he said while still smirking.

Naruto was about to bonk him on the head until a shrill and painfully loud laugh could be heard and Sakura was walking from the edge of the road.

"NARUTO-BAKA, YOU'RE PLAYING NINJA WITH KIDS. YOU'RE A PATHETIC EXCUSE OF ONE COMPARED TO SASUKE-KUN!" she shrieked.

Hinata was angry that Sakura was so blind and bigoted that she would ignore and bully Naruto infront of others and constantly worship her "Sasuke-sama". She never understood what the big deal with him was. Sure he had looks but he treated everyone around him like dirt on his shoes and the fan girls couldn't take a hint. She chose to be with someone that actually cared about others and had a kind heart like Naruto. Last week, her Father called her to discuss Naruto and approved of the relationship but made it clear that sleeping with him was prohibited until further notice. He also wished her good luck as his denseness was there to stay and it may be a while till he understands how she feels but Hinata was willing to wait as long as it took for him. She was so happy that Father approved to the point where even Neji and his stupid beliefs about "Fate" was blocked out. But progress was minimal since Naruto couldn't take a hint that she liked him more than a friend and suspected that Naruto liked her too but was too afraid to show it. Still she promised to wait for him and she would still wait for him.

Konohamaru piped up to defend his boss, "Shut up you crazy banshee, no one asked you and no one will if you keep yelling. Yeesh, I almost feel bad for the Uchiha prick if he has to put up with your volume every day".

As those words left his mouth Sakura let out a deafening war cry much like what Hollywood shows Native Indians do in any colonial American movies, but no one got that reference in this dimension.

Konohamaru was visibly freaking out at this certifiably insane banshee and did what any man would do if something was running at you blowing noise at 150 Decibels. Its not physically possible but its pretty damn close to bursting an eardrum and made a run for it.

Naruto felt sympathy and ran to save the poor kid before he has to explain to the Hokage why his grandson is deaf and asked Hinata to keep an eye on the other two kids.

Naruto turned around a corner to see Konohamaru being bullied. He may be a brat but he was a grandson of the Hokage so he is family!

"Hey, put me down you cat suit freak" Konohamaru said while struggling under Kankuro's grip.

"You little brat, you bump into me and thats what you say! I guess I have to show you some manners" he said as he readied his fist but before that could happen Naruto **Soru** ed behind Kankuro and held him in a deadlock with a kunai. Temari was surprised and was about to draw her fan but remembered that this is a Konoha nin in their village, if she attacks then she will get sent to jail before she could blink.

" **I hope you have a brilliant explanation as to why you are manhandling the Sandaime Hokage-sama grandson. Failure to release him will result in you being placed in a holding cell before being kicked out of our village** " he said in a dark tone with some of Kurama's chakra in his voice box.

Kankuro visibly was sweating at the kids no nonsense tone before putting Konohamaru down. As soon as Konohamaru got some good distance he let Kankuro out of his grip.

"Pathetic, Suna-nin need to pick on children these days to make themselves look tough for the Chunin exams. You would have better luck if you wore normal clothes and stopped raiding your teammates make-up compartment" he said as he walked away.

"Why you little! This is war paint!" Kankuro yelled as he took out the puppet strapped to his back.

"Kankuro, are you trying to get us kicked out of Konoha! Put crow away now!" she said at Kankuro and managed to stop him from opening the bandages on his baggage.

"And could your bloodthirsty sand friend in the tree please come on out. It is quite disconcerting to have someone like him at a vantage point to strike me. Uchiha, just stay up there. No one wants to see you bragging" Naruto said without turning around.

Sasuke got down annoyed that he couldn't show up these foreign nin and Gaara shunshinned with sand in front of the Sand siblings. Naruto turned around to face Gaara and he was almost overwhelmed by the negative emotions Gaara was putting out. His nose could smell a lot of blood staining the sand on his gourd and knew this kid was a bloodthirsty and barbaric killer.

"Kankuro, stop this now. We didn't come here to play games" he said in a monotone that sent chills up Kankuro's spine. This was Gaara's killing voice and if he didn't do something he would be brutally killed by him.

"O-ok, Ga-gaara, but they started it, I swear!" he stuttered out in fear.

"Shut up, or I will kill you" he whispered softly but that was enough for Kankuro to back off.

"W-Whatever you say Gaara" he stuttered out and backed away from him.

 **"Kit, I sense a bijuu inside that kid. He contains Shukaku the Ichibi!"** Kurama said in his head.

 _"Crud. On a scale of one to nine with nine being the worst. How bad is this?"_ he asked in worry.

 **"10. Shukaku was certifiably insane the last I saw of him. From what I heard over the years he causes all his hosts to have insomnia so they can't sleep at all and he drives his hosts insane. Be careful, he will do his best to kill you at all costs"** Kurama warned looking serious.

 _"Kurama's right, look at his eyes. They hold no care about the value of life. They looked just like the eyes of those CP9 guys we fought. He won't hesitate to kill you so don't hold back"_ Luffy warned as well.

 _"Ok you guys. But I feel excited, I can't wait to fight someone as strong as him!"_ Naruto thought back.

While that was conversation was playing in his head back in real life Sasuke had asked/demanded to know what they were doing and the banshee was backing him up.

"Have you lived under a rock your whole life? We are here for the Chunin exams" Temari said back at the two and they walked away after showing their forms.

"You with the gourd. Identify yourself." Sasuke said while smirking at the prospect of becoming chunin. He would just demand Kakashi to give him one of those forms.

"My name is Gaara of the Desert. I grow curious of the name of the blond one. What is your name?" Gaara said as he looked at Naruto.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I will see you in the exams Mr. 1" Naruto said while grinning.

Gaara smirked and narrowed his eyes at a challenge. " _He will be the one to prove my existence!"._ "I can say the same about you Mr. 9. I look forward to fighting you the most".

Temari and Kankuro were sweating when he said Mr. 1 as the identity of a jinchuuriki is supposed to be a secret but this kid knew. The started to sweat even more when he said Mr. 9 and that meant the blond was the jinchuuriki to the Kyuubi, the most bloodthirsty and powerful of all the bijuu.

Sasuke was angry that the Suna idiot wanted the dobe's name over his own. "Hmph, my name is Sasuke Uchiha remember it you Suna idiots" he spat and swore to wipe the floor with these clowns to show the power of the Uchiha.

"Mother doesn't care about you, Uchiha. Mother craves for the blood of Uzumaki. I will enjoy killing you for Mother" Gaara said annoyed that he was interrupted.

 **"Like I said. Insane"** Kurama said in worry.

"Let's go, now" Gaara said as he walked away with his siblings in tow.

After the trio left. Sakura spoke up (or screamed is more like it) that these Suna idiots would get floored by Sasuke because they underestimated him for Naruto-baka of all people. Sasuke was going home to train more in his new fire jutsu and left while Sakura was following/stalking him.

"Boss for the record, that was so cool!" Konohamaru said with stars in his eyes.

Naruto lightened up and took Konohamaru back to the other two and Hinata. Sadly he had to cancel his date (wait dinner, sorry) and he told that he had to report something important to Kakashi and the Hokage that he just found out from the Suna ninjas and had Konohamanru tell them what happened before he left in a burst of speed.

* * *

"Gaara, we need to tell Baki-sensei about that kid, he could ruin the plan!" Kankuro whispered in fear to Gaara.

"I agree with Kankuro as well Gaara, we need to tell father and..." Temari said nervously.

Gaara stayed silent before his gourd burst open and sand started to pour out of it. Temari and Kankuro backed off quickly and were about to make a run for it but it was too late and the sand had wrapped around them and formed a cocoon around them and stopped them moving.

"We will not tell Baki and especially not the Kazekage. If you tell anyone about him then I will find you and kill you. He is mine to kill and if anyone takes away the one Mother wants to kill then I will end you both. Are we clear?" he whispered dangerously and stared at both of them.

Temari and Kankuro nodded furiously and promised to agree to Gaara's conditions and he let them go. They offered silent condolences to that blond kid because he is a dead man now.

* * *

"Well what do you think Dosu?" a sound ninja asked hiding in a tree and watched the whole preceedings.

"The usual genin, no big problem but that blond and the desert rat are the ones to watch out for aside from our target, the Uchiha" another one said while smirking under bandages. They shunshined away before their presences were sensed.

* * *

"Old Man, we have a problem" he said while knocking on his door.

He opened the door to see Sarutobi going through a pile of papers on his desk looking stressed.

"Naruto-kun, what's wrong?" he asked in his Grandfatherly tone.

"I just met a Suna ninja called Gaara and he..." Naruto started but the Hokage cut him off.

"Naruto-kun, its the chunin exams of course there are going to be foreign ninja and..." he cut off but Naruto interrupted looking more worried.

"He's a jinchuuriki!" Naruto said.

Sarutobi looked shocked that a village would send a bijuu to another village. If that wasn't a sign of aggression what is?

"What!" he said and dropped his pipe.

"Kurama sensed the Ichibi, Shukaku inside this guy and he sounds like a madman. What is Suna playing at sending an unstable jinchuuriki into another village?" he said worriedly.

Sarutobi crossed his hands and thought to himself. An unstable jinchuuriki was a very big and loose cannon. You only chuck one in at the centre of the enemy lines and hope it explodes at the enemy. Suna was facing a shortage of funds as the Wind Daimyo sent missions to Konoha these days but is sending an unstable jinchuuriki a show of strength or a weapon against our village. Is Suna planning an attack in the Chunin exams?

"It's pointless to speculate at this time Naruto-kun. All we can do is keep our guard up and prepare for whatever hits us. For now I want you to be wary and if you see anything out of the ordinary in these exams then report it to a proctor, they are some of my most trusted ninjas." Sarutobi said seriously, "I think Kakashi will be getting the forms for the Chunin exams so go wait for him to get it. I will also ask the senseis to warn their genin about this ninja".

Naruto nodded and left on that note while Sarutobi looked deep in thought at Suna's behaviour.

* * *

During the jonin meeting with the Hokage he called all the sensei's and his ninja from Chunin and above to the assembly hall.

"Ok now lets go through the genin teams and who would like to recommend their genin for the chunin exams?" he asked as he looked at the jonin sensei's.

"Hokage-sama, I recommend my youthful genins of team 9 made up of Rock Lee, Neji Hyuuga and Tenten for the Chunin exams for them to fan their flames of youth!" he said while pumping fist.

Sarutobi sweatdropped and gave him the form as fast as possible to shut him up quickly.

"Oookay, next" he said trying to move this along.

"Hokage-sama, I recommend my genins of team 7 made up of Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno for the Chunin exams" said Kakashi as he stepped forward. He got the forms and stepped back into the crowd.

Some of the other ninja looked at Kakashi in disbelief and there was muttering about Kakashi sending a rookie genin team into the Chunin exams so early. Iruka looked shocked and worried for Naruto as these exams can kill genin or break them.

"Hokage-sama, I recommend my genins of team 8 made up of Kiba Inuzuka, Hinata Hyuuga and Shino Aburame for the Chunin exams" said Kurenai as she stepped forward and got the forms and walked back to the crowd.

"Hokage-sama, I recommend my genins of team 10 made up of Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi and Ino Yamanaka for the Chunin exams" Asuma said as he got a set of forms and walked back to the crowd.

The muttering in the crowd got louder until Iruka could take this no more. "This is ridiculous. Hokage-sama I have taught these genin and they are in no way ready for the Chunin exams so early. They need more time, especially Naruto and..." he started but was cut off by Kakashi.

"Iruka, you are making no sense whatsoever. The genin are at an acceptable level for these exams and I feel that they are ready for this. And Naruto of all people is by for the most ready one for them" Kakashi said staring at Iruka. "Besides I did these exams when I was a kid, it will be a breeze for them".

"You were a prodigy at that time, Kakashi. Naruto is not like you and neither are the other genin. Are you trying to get them killed!" he said back at him furiously.

"I agree with Iruka, my eternal rival. Perhaps it would be wiser to wait a year. It's what I did and it was a good decision and I am certain my youthful genin can take them on now" Gai said seriously to Kakashi as well.

"Iruka..." Sarutobi started.

"No need Hokage-sama. Iruka needs to understand that the genin are no longer his ninja, they are mine now. If I say they are ready then I bet all my competency and reputation as an Elite Jonin when I recommend them and I know of all my genin Naruto is the most prepared among them all." Kakashi said seriously. Iruka was about to yell back at him before he was cut off.

"Enough! I want Iruka, Kakashi, Kurenai and Asuma to stay behind after the meeting" the Hokage said seriously in an authoritative tone. "Now I have something important to discuss with you all".

"Recently, I have managed to discover that Suna has sent an unstable Jinchuuriki into the exams" the Hokage said seriously.

There was panic as soon as he said that and Iruka looked even more worried about what was going to happen in these exams.

"SILENCE! This came from Jiraiya's spy network and I want every jonin sensei to warn their genin about a ninja named Gaara who is an unstable jinchuuriki to the Ichibi, tell them to avoid him at all costs but don't tell them about the jinchuuriki part as Suna may get suspicious as to how we know the jinchuuriki's identity. We will closely monitor the Suna ninjas and I will have Jiraiya look into this more. If Gaara comes close to releasing a bijuu then we will strike. I want everyone here to be cautious of Suna ninjas as they must have lost their minds if they are sending an unstable jinchuuriki or they are planning to betray us in these exams and attack. I am slowly pulling our forces back from the elemental nations to the village so as not to arouse suspicion from the Suna ninjas as a safety precaution. Am I understood?" he said at his forces.

"HAI, HOKAGE-SAMA" his ninja roared in unison.

* * *

"Ok now let us discuss this without any shouting preferably, I get enough of that from the Civilian Council" he said while looking very tired and haggard.

Iruka immediately started, "Hokage-sama, this is madness. These are rookie genin and you are sending them to a death match with an unstable jinchuuriki. They will be killed!"

"And if we send no one from our own village when the exams are on home turf what do you think clients and the Daimyo will say, Iruka?" Kakashi retorted back.

"But this is suicide!" he exclaimed in frustration, "None of them are at a level to fight a bijuu!".

"We will warn our genin at all costs do NOT engage Gaara and hopefully our genin will be able to make it through this mess" Asuma added and Kurenai nodded at this.

"But..." Iruka said but the Hokage cut him off.

"I have an alternative and it comes as a compromise" the Hokage said and everyone turned to him, "I suggest an unofficial pre-test on the rookie genin to see it they have what it takes. If they fail then they are not going to the exams regardless of what the jonins say but if they pass then Iruka you will have to drop this. Is that acceptable?"

"Ok" Kakashi said and went back to his book. The other two jonins nodded and so did Iruka.

"Ok, Iruka you can do the honors of the pre-test on the genin. Everyone, dismissed" he said and the four of them left

* * *

Naruto and the rest of team 7 were ordered to gather at Tenchi bridge under Kakashi's orders.

"Ok my cute little genin, here I have 3 forms for the Chunin exams. Fill in your names and details and report to the academy at room 301, tomorrow at 9AM sharp. The choice to take these exams are individual and if you don't feel ready then you can try next time. If you do take these exams then I have been told by the Hokage to warn you guys that under no circumstances should you fight a ninja named Gaara. He will kill you brutally and you will not stand a chance against him. Good luck!" he said and gave out the forms and shunshinned away.

 _"Hmph, finally the cyclops did something right. This will let me get one step closer to killing Itachi and stop with these ridiculous chores called missions. I will fight that Suna Ninja and prove the might of the Uchiha"_ Sasuke thought as he immediately filled out his form.

 _"Am i ready for this? I dunno if I can do this..."_ **"Cha! Sasuke-kun needs us for the exams! He will wipe the floor with the competition and sweep us off the floor and ride a horse with us into the sunset and proclaim his love for us! We need to do this! CHA!"** Sakura thought but her freaky inner spirit had other plans and she signed it.

Naruto signed his form as well and while thinking about Gaara and what Suna is going to do in these exams.

The three of them left, not noticing the disguised Ame ninja stalking them.

* * *

Konohamaru was visibly sweating. An Ame ninja comes out of nowhere and holds Moegi hostage and wants Naruto to show up. He searched the village and found the boss and brought him to the place the ninja was holding Moegi.

"Boss, there he is" Konohamaru said while sweating, "That creep wants you to do something". Naruto made a kage bunshin as soon as Konohamaru came to him and told him to go with the kage bunshin and told Konohamaru that he would follow from a distance to get the drop on this guy.

"So you're Naruto. Good. I want you to steal the sacred scroll of sealing or the girl gets it" he said as he held Moegi with a kunai, "Now get to it!".

"You're not the brightest bulb from the factory are you. You're holding a konoha civilian hostage, in the middle of the village where there is no escape path or anything. When are you going to release the kid and how will you escape the Hunter nins? Are you going to keep the kid with you until you reach Ame which is quite a while and you would have to stay alert and keep watch on the kid for 6 days straight. To be honest you're about as smart as your "hostage"" Naruto said.

He was purposely drawing out the conversation so original Naruto had the time to make a Kage Bunshin and arm him to the teeth with exploding notes. Then the clone **Kawarimi** ed with Moegi. **Kawarimi** works easily so long as the chakra you put into the jutsu exceeds the chakra capacity of the target or they could resist it. A Naruto bunshin easily had more chakra than a kid in the academy so it worked and was smokeless.

The Ame nin looked at the hostage and saw a Naruto bunshin smiling while covered in exploding notes. Most of them were fake as this guy was going to the T and I department in one piece.

The ninja let go on instinct and was about to run away before the Naruto clone in front of him called out **"Fuuton: Reppusho"** and clapped.

A strong gust of wind was generated and it knocked the Ame ninja off his feet and was blasting him though a few trees. Naruto called out **Soru** and became a blur. The Ame ninja was trying to get ahold of himself and tried to use chakra to stick to a surface but Naruto appeared in front of him and called out attacks.

 **"Collier"** and Naruto gave a strong kick to the neck with one leg and turned with his other leg for extra force and knocked down the Ame ninja to the ground. The Ame ninja was getting up but Naruto wouldn't let that happen.

" **Epaule"** and Naruto kicked him hard on his left shoulder and knocked him onto the ground. The Ame ninja was floored but the force of impact on the ground managed to push him up and he used it to get on his knees slowly and painfully.

Naruto dropped onto his left hand and got below and behind him and twisted and called **"Cotellete"** and kicked his ribs from behind and kicked his lower back with his other leg and called **"Selle".**

He pushed hard from his hand and got above his opponent while he was falling down in pain and kicked him in the chest and said **"Poitrine".** Then he stood and spun and kicked him in the legs, **"Gigot"** and the Ame ninja was sent flying.

Naruto used **Soru** to get in close and nailed him with one final kick to the side of his head, " **Mouton Shot"**. The Ame ninja was sent to unconscious land as he went headfirst through a boulder. (A normal man would be dead but lets face it these are ninja so he survived because he sent chakra to a body part to cushion a blow before he was hit. Lets go with that.)

Naruto walked over to him and some shadow clones henge into rope and tied up the Ame ninja to a tree. He then placed fake explosive tags on him again and linked them with some ink in fancy patterns. This looked like it would trigger an explosion if he tried to escape but in reality it did nothing. But the moron from Ame didn't know that.

He then went back to the clearing where the three kids were waiting for him. Konohamaru had stars in his eyes and was doing his best **"Puppy eyes no jutsu"** to get the boss to teach him that awesome move, Moegi was grateful to be safe and Udon was asking for an autograph.

"Kids, calm down" he said for the 56th time and made a kage bunshin. "I'm going to drop off the idiot at the T and I department so you three follow my shadow clone and get home, ok".

They obliged (reluctantly) and went with Naruto-bunshin, while Naruto **Soru** ed to the T and I department and handed over the knocked out Ame ninja to Inoichi who was with Ibiki and explained what happened. They were surprised at how dumb this plan was and took the Ame ninja off Naruto's hands.

* * *

Kakashi was wearing one heck of a grin when Iruka showed up.

After he woke up from being knocked out by Naruto he woke to see Ibiki's creepy smiling face in the middle of the Torture and Interrogation department while sitting on a chair with nails. After Iruka was trying his best to explain what happened and ignore the stabbing pain, they had Inoichi mind walk into him and found his story to be true and let him go. Then Iruka went to the hospital to get treated for the beating Naruto gave and for his rear end. The kicks did less damage than what they were supposed to do as Naruto wanted him in mostly one piece to give to the T&I. After he was healed and had an ice pack strapped to his rear he went to Kakashi who was trying his best not to laugh.

It was a good thing he tested Naruto last but Iruka didn't see it that way. He was shadow bound by Shikamaru and made to punch himself, then chased around by a giant rolling boulder that was Choji, given a headache from Ino's mind jutsus, juukened by Hinata (and he never remembered her being so vicious in a fight), nearly shredded by Kiba, covered in bugs by Shino, continuously peppered with fire balls from Sasuke but the Uchiha collapsed from exhaustion before Iruka could get hurt, he was shrieked at by Sakura and that's not even a real jutsu, it just plain hurt like hell for his eardrums and was sent to the hospital by Naruto. From every other genin he escaped and was taking it easy but Naruto nailed him by surprise and knocked him out. He couldn't escape from whatever fuinjutsu trap he put on him as there were exploding notes on him. He was kicked in the head again when Naruto saw him wake up and went unconscious again before waking up in the T&I. That was the main thing on his mind.

"When did Naruto get so strong?" he asked.

"Naruto was always strong, Iruka. You know as well as I do that the teachers when he started out were heavily biased against him. He purposely took on the mask on an idiot and kept his real skills hidden to avoid their hatred of him. Put it this way, would a teacher fear a strong demon or a weak one? But that mask slowly became his reality and it was only after Wave and some crazy stuff that happened there that shook it off before it was stuck on him for good, psychologically speaking of course," Kakashi explained to the best of his ability, "Naruto also worked day in and day out until he could no longer move every day. It comes as no surprise at how strong he is considering how hard he worked to reach it. That is why I said Naruto has the best chance at becoming chunin".

"Maybe a little warning that Naruto could deal out a lot of pain might have been nice, but thank you for taking care of I'm and I'm sorry I questioned your judgement" he replied back to Kakashi after a few seconds of silence to digest that information.

"Maa, maa. It's ok, Iruka. He's like my little brother and I will not let anything happen to him, that I promise." he said while eye-smiling.

Iruka bowed and went back to the hospital, his head is still ringing after the hits he got from Naruto but one thing was one his mind.

 _"Naruto, I'm proud of how far you've come"_

* * *

Naruto woke up early and was too excited at the Chunin exams. He quickly got up and brushed, showered, ate a big enough breakfast to make sure he has enough energy to get through the day and wore his usual clothes of blue and black with a protective layer underneath his clothes and put on his Straw Hat.

He left and used **Soru** to reach the academy in good time and was there by 8:50 and saw the rest of his team and walked in with them. As he climbed the stairs he noticed a flock of genin huddling around a room on the second floor that had a room with a sign saying room 301 when it was only the second floor.

"Please, just let us through" Tenten said to the 2 guys blocking the door and he noticed Lee was on the ground. He didn't know much about Tenten but Lee of all people would floor these guys because he knew how hard he works every day. He then realised they were downplaying their skills. Clever, but staying anonymous was more suited for him and he was better getting the drop on others as others would never notice or and he made sure no one in the exams knew anything about him.

"A little girl like you stands no chance in these exams, they can kill and break a ninja. A chunin needs to be a leader who stays strong and tough, not a little girl like you" one said and Naruto knew that was Izumo, henge'd into Kotetsu's younger self? What the heck?

"We're doing a favour for you little girl, go back to your doll set back home" Kotetsu said looking like a younger Izumo. Seriously, that was the best disguise they could manage? He realised this was an unofficial pre-test and any smart genin would just go to the next floor and ignore this.

"Hey you two, drop the useless genjutsu. This is the second floor but we're supposed to go to the third one" Sasuke said while smirking that he saw through this stupid trick. Naruto face palmed and forgot about him and he would blow the whole test and make more participants enter.

Izumo and Kotetsu were sweat dropping at the Uchiha and wondered if he had his head on right. Any normal ninja wanted more chance of success. He saw through the trick but made it harder on himself? They caught themselves and tried to stay in character.

"Well, looks like you saw through the trick but the exams are way worse than this" Izumo said.

"Good luck, you'll need it" Kotetsu said, "I'll make sure to bet you fail".

Sasuke saw red and went to attack Kotetsu with a kick, he was going to retaliate with a punch but Lee suddenly appeared before them and caught both attacks.

"The exams are yet to begin, save your youthful energy for it" Lee said and Naruto was wondering what the heck is with this "Youth" stuff and felt bad that Lee was infected.

"Lee. Wasn't downplaying our skills your idea! What is the matter with you!" Tenten hissed, angry that Lee blew their cover.

"Ahh, forgive me Tenten for I was caught up in the youthful fight that was going to begin" Lee said with a thumbs-up Gai pose and let them go.

Kotetsu was worried that the children of Konoha will be scarred if they see Gai and end up just like this kid and Sasuke was thinking _"He was able to match my speed with ease! This guy could be a useful stepping stone to make me stronger"._

"Hmph, Lee stop acting like a buffoon and let's go," Neji said as he appeared from the crowd and caught sight of Sasuke, "You, what's you name?"

"It's common courtesy to give your own name before asking someone else's" Sasuke replied smoothly.

Everyone around him giggled and Neji grew angered, "Why you...How old are you?" he spat back.

"I'm not obliged to answer" he said and walked away like he was too good for everyone. Soon the crowd started to disperse and Naruto went up to Izumo and Kotetsu to apologise for Sasuke and they accepted.

"By the way, really? Transforming into your younger selves and then switching it around? Are you guys really...well y'know?" Naruto said.

The two got angry and said "NO! WE'RE NOT!" and shood him away.

* * *

He caught up to the rest of his team and went through one of the old halls for assembly in the Academy when they heard someone calling behind them.

"Hey, you with the attitude" Lee said as he jumped down to the trio, "You said it's common courtesy for someone to give their name first before knowing someone elses. My name is Rock Lee and may I know your name?"

Sasuke smirked that finally someone sees him as a threat and said in a smug tone, "My name is Sasuke Uchiha, remember it".

"I wish to challenge you to a fight" Lee said and then he turned to Sakura, "And I will win this young maiden's heart, may I have the honour of knowing your beautiful name?" and he winked.

There was a small time of silence as everyone present tried to comprehend this. Naruto was wondering what was wrong with Lee, Kurama was puking because he saw enough of that cheesy talk to the banshee in the kit's memories and Luffy was wondering if she was an evil witch that brews potions and makes innocent guys act like that to her and got Naruto and Lee with it. Kurama and Naruto were sweat dropping that the only feasible explanation came from Luffy of all people.

"NO WAY! I ONLY LOVE SASUKE-KUN AND NO ONE ELSE YOU CREEPY EYEBROW FREAK!" she shrieked but Lee was used to yelling and had resistant ears.

"Do not fear young maiden I will prove myself and defeat the Uchiha to win your heart" Lee said as he got into a fighting stance and Sasuke got into his and activated his sharingan.

Naruto sighed and left. He knew Lee was going to win and didn't want to be there when Gai shows up and does his mind scarring sunset genjutsu of youth or to hear Sakura scream that Lee cheated and both the guys in his head agreed and they left.

* * *

Naruto got to room 301 and saw Kakashi waiting at the door. He explained that Lee had challenged Sasuke and wanted to win Sakura's heart and explained Luffy's theory and again Kakashi was shocked that a pirate with the mind of a four-year old came up with the only theory that made any logical sense.

"And so I left before Gai came in with his mind shattering genjutsu or to hear Sakura screech because Lee won" he concluded.

Kakashi couldn't blame him because he would do the same thing and decided to wait.

"Oh yeah Naruto. I tell you this because I care but I want you to beat Lee. I cannot let my mini-me lose against Gai's mini-me so get your face mask on and defeat the flames of youth," Kakashi said sweetly.

Naruto sighed but somehow a greater force beyond comprehension was turning him into Kakashi's mini-me and it's not like that's a bad thing and he thought of Kakashi as a cool older brother/role model so he just went with it and didn't bother to fight the will of the Author and his reviewers on that one and put on his mask. Kakashi looked at Naruto and couldn't be more proud of him.

After a while Sasuke and Sakura came up to the room. Sasuke came up with a slight bruise on his face and with Sakura was making her opinion vocal that Lee should be disqualified for hurting Sasuke. Kakashi couldn't be bothered to talk to them about teamwork when they had none and just sent them in and wished them good luck.

* * *

Naruto went into the room to feel a burst of KI but it was only genin level KI. Naruto decided to make a statement and make these guys take him seriously and shot up his KI and added a part of Kurama's KI and Luffy added a small portion of Haoshuku haki since he could only use a small amount of Haki in someone else's body.

The mix of KI and haki had the other genin cowed and he could have sworn one or two of them were knocked out and frothing at their mouths. He could see Gaara smirk in anticipation at fighting Naruto.

Sakura decided to make sure they all knew what was going to happen, "LISTEN UP ALL OF YOU! MY SASUKE-KUN IS GOING TO WIPE THE FLOOR WITH YOU ALL SO BRING IT ON!" she shrieked and the whole room was deafened and clutched their ears. Ok, a lot is legal before the exam other than bodily harm and it's legal to psyche out the opponents but c'mon Konoha has to be cheating if they send in this banshee to pop their eardrums.

"Jeez Sakura pipe down, your so troublesome" Shikamaru said as he walked towards them with the rest of team 10.

Sakura was about to yell again before Sasuke told her to shut up. Ino took a good hard look at Sasuke and remembered what her dad said about fangirls being equal to cannon fodder in wartime. She dieted, stalked and professed her love to the Uchiha several times but all she ever got was a cold shoulder and insults. Then she went to Hinata to talk about this as she was the only non-Sasuke fangirl in their class and she told her about what she thought about Sasuke and chose someone who was actually a good person to be the target of her affections and although it may take a while she felt happier with Naruto than with someone so rude and arrogant as Sasuke. Then she asked if she always knew Naruto was a hunk to which she blushed red as a tomato and Ino had caught her.

And that is why Ino didn't tackle Sasuke into a hug when Sakura was looking at her. She also thought of talking to Sakura about this but she knew that Sakura was obsessed to the point where it's just unhealthy for Sasuke and felt bad that she ended a good friendship for a jerk of a boy that only looked nice.

Choji was eating chips and unaware of Ino's inner turmoil or anything in the outside world to be honest.

"Yahoo, all the rookies are here in one spot" Kiba yelled as he came with Team 8 in tow, "Of course this exam is going to be a breeze for the talented ones, right Sasuke". Of course the hot air balloons congregate, that's the point of air shows, right?

Sasuke was smirking at the praise and replied smugly, "Don't run your mouth Kiba, someone as weak as you needs every advantage they can get".

Kiba visibly fumed at this and Akamaru started barking. Naruto couldn't care less and was staring at Hinata.

 _"God, whoever that boy she likes is so lucky!"_ he thought with a sigh. He asked her a few times when they went to dinner who the boy was and tried to sound like he was just casually bringing it up but if he can't pick up a hint, how is he supposed to do this? Hinata kept blushing and looking away and it was maddening to Naruto that someone was lucky enough to be the one Hinata likes. She's smart, kind, determined and really cute and wondered why he didn't try to be with her instead, who knows maybe it would be him instead of that boy she likes?

Kurama was just speechless when he heard his thoughts. Ok he wanted to see his face when he realises that the boy is HIM but how long is this going to take! He broke 3 iron walls from head bashing for crying out loud and just broke the fourth wall (the Author put it back and slapped him on the wrist for breaking it)! Luffy was of no help and advised Naruto to find out who she likes and beat him up as that solved all of his problems when he was a pirate but Kurama told him that was a terrible idea but sadly it didn't get though to Naruto. He wasn't going to pick a fight but he really wanted to know who it was that Hinata liked and wanted to see what she saw in him! Kurama broke down in tears of sympathy for Hinata and realised that if there was a god of patience it was reborn as Hinata.

Hinata was blushing as Naruto stared at her and was hoping that hint number 784 was the lucky one. Sadly, Cupid for some reason didn't like that number and didn't help.

Shino just stood there silently, very silently. No wonder people seem to miss him if he doesn't do much in conversation.

Kabuto came to them and said "Hey I wouldn't make too much noise if I were you, for a bunch of rookies you have attracted a lot of attention".

"And who are you supposed to be" Sasuke asked arrogantly.

"My name is Kabuto and you can call me your senpai in a way" he said while smiling, "I've done this exam 7 times so I know how this works".

"Wow 7 tries! You must really suck!" Kiba said rudely.

"Or the exams are harder than they seem" Shino said in monotone behind Kiba and freaked him out.

"Yeah but every failure made me more experienced and all my experience are in these ninja info cards. I have data on statistics, the number of genin from each village and their individual skills, including you guys of course" he said while smirking.

"I want information on three candidates. Rock Lee, Gaara and Uzumaki Naruto" Sasuke demanded.

"Wow thats easy, you know their names" he said and was going to pick up a card when Naruto piped up, "And you're just helping us out of the goodness of your heart, Kabuto?"

Kabuto looked sheepish and said "Well we are all Konoha nin. Think of it as tipping the odds in our favour" and swiped his hand over the deck.

Shikamaru deduced from the way Kabuto looked at the cards and said, "Its also a nice way to see threats that we feel suspicious of but you don't know about and also that may mean that you haven't looked at the cards yourself either" _"He could also be trying to earn our trust, but for what?"_ thought Shikamaru, Naruto and Shino. Kabuto ignored that and began to read out:

"Ok Rock Lee, a year above yours and the dead-last of the class. He is in team 9 with Maito Gai as a sensei and with Tenten and Neji Hyuuga as teammates. No skills in ninjutsu or genjutsu but an astounding level of Taijutsu. 149 D-ranks and 13 C-ranks taken."

Sasuke alrady knew that and told him to move on to the next one.

"Gaara of the Desert, the youngest son of the Kazekage. He is on a team with Baki was a sensei and with Temari and Kankuro who are his siblings as teammates. High skill in ninjutsu but no known genjutsu or taijutsu. 56 D-ranks 67 C-ranks and 1 B-rank taken. Additional notes: He has gone through every mission without a scratch" _"and is the Ichibi's jinchuuriki but can't tell you that"._

Ino's dad had shown her small visual cues that show when a ninja is lying and not telling the whole story. They are his little tricks that he picked up over the years and told them to her and she saw 3 cues that he is hiding something and reminded herself to tell her team about this as it follows with what Asuma-sensei said to avoid this guy. Everyone else tensed and wondered how a genin was given a B-rank and also came back without a scratch

"And finally Uzumaki Naruto" and Sasuke perked up his ears at that part, Naruto went to get some water in the corner and channeled chakra to his ears to listen for just how much they guy knows and his ulterior motives as Kurama sensed that this guy practically reeks dishonesty.

"Uzumaki Naruto, same year as you guys and the dead-last of this years class. He is on a team with Kakashi Hatake as his sensei and with Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno as teammates. Skilled in ninjutsu but limited jutsu list, no skills in genjutsu and unknown style of taijutsu made up of solely kicking attacks. 49 D-ranks and 1 A-rank mission. Additional notes: He is a jinchuuriki and in wave he..." but was cut off.

Naruto **Soru** ed right back to Kabuto the moment he said jinchuuriki and swiped the card from his hand. He looked at the rest of it and his expression grew dark. It described his devil fruits, Rokushiki, Haki, Santoryuu and Black leg style and his partnership with Kurama!

"These are S-rank secrets only the Hokage knows! How did you come by this?" and channeled Kurama's chakra to his eyes and made them become blood red and slitted.

Kabuto looked like his hand was caught in the cookie jar. After he saw dead-last he just read everything carelessly and didn't think about it. He assumed that what he was going to read was something everyone knew and got careless. He reprimanded himself that carelessness gets people killed and this is not the time to be careless.

He looked sheepish and said, "Maybe I'm too good at what I do, sorry if I was invading your privacy. I won't read it out and you can keep it if you want". He had to regain his trust, or the plan was blown.

Naruto placed his idiot mask back on and smiled and said ok and thanks. Luckily from years of acting like one it worked and he channeled fuuton chakra through the card and it sliced to pieces.

Kabuto looked innocent but in his head he was ticked as he was planning on stealing it back. He worked years to gather data by placing a thin sheet of sensitive chakra paper on the Hokage's desk and cabinet. As soon as a document falls on it the paper is extremely sensitive to ink written on documents and fluctuates its chakra signature very slightly and is directly linked to his cards and it gives him all the data he needs. It was extremely risky but Orochimaru-sama didn't accept failure and if he wanted something done he got it done or died. He never got to get a good look at it because Orochimaru never trusted anyone, not even Kabuto and he had been warned that reading a card before him will mean death and he agreed and read them out as Orochimaru-sama was disguised as a genin in this room. But what could really be on that card anyway, he was the dead-last and the only actual bit of information was his jinchuuriki status and that was one of the lousiest kept secrets he'd ever seen.

Naruto made a sealless kage bunshin and told him to get to the Hokage immediately to tell him about this and the bunshin **Soru** ed to the Hokage's tower.

Meanwhile the others were wondering what a jinchuuriki was but some of the other ninjas present looked like he had the plague. The Suna ninja were worried at what he would be like considering their murderous younger brother and decided to keep their distance.

Shikamaru added the term "Jinchuuriki" to his mental list about Naruto, _"Weird taijutsu style and the word jinchuuriki was the only thing important. Power of a human sacrifice, what does that mean? Well whatever it is, if it makes everyone look like he is going to kill them all it's best I don't underestimate him. Heck better not to fight him anyway when he can clap his hands and blow trees and boulders away!"_

Sasuke was seething that his chance to learn more about the dobe was taken "Dobe, I demand to know what was on that card and what is a jinchuuriki?".

Naruto decided to go back to the classic response and farted, "Sorry Sasuke, did you say something?" By some miracle people may get back to underestimating him and he can get through this.

Sakura yelled at how disgusting he was before Sasuke told her to shut up. Sasuke was still angry that the dobe didn't tell him, " _Fine I'll just ask the civilian council and those old bags of bones. They will tell me what I need to know"_.

Hinata realised that Jinchuuriki must be a terrible term others call people like Naruto with a bijuu in them and went to console him. Neji was watching the whole proceedings and scoffed that the great Hinata-sama would be with the dead-last of the class, failures like them stick together.

Kabuto continued on to not arouse suspicion. "Out of all the ninjas from each country our village sent the most as we have home field advantage and the least came from a minor village called the village hidden in the sound so they aren't a huge threat to the rest of us..."

Before he could continue Dosu and the others who were watching this going on saw Kabuto insult them. Dosu used his Melody Gauntlet to create sound waves and targeted Kabuto as he went in for a punch. After a few seconds, Kabuto was feeling disorientated and got to his knees. He then started to vomit and looked sick and his glasses shattered.

"Listen up you little worm and write this on your cards. The ninja from the sound village are going to be the ones that will become chunin this year" Dosu said while smirking under the bandages.

Naruto saw the gauntlet and felt a vibration in his ears, it was mostly targeted at Kabuto but his sensitive ears could pick it up. Kurama deduced that the gauntlet lets out a noise that affects the middle ear as that was where he sent the most chakra to heal it. Naruto decided to see if he could rile up this moron who made an unprovoked attack on a Konoha ninja in the middle of their village!

"Wow what a lame trick. Using a gauntlet that emits sound at a frequency that affects the middle ear bones and makes opponents disorientated. A counter to this: Wear earplugs. A little lame that you take your village name too seriously, any other gimmicks or are you all nothing but one-trick-ponies?" Naruto stated and got out his earplugs (come on he is on a team with a banshee, why would he not have this!) and placed them in his ears.

That's right Kakashi persuaded Naruto to go to the library and with his shadow clones he managed to read from politics (boring) to literature (even more boring) and some actually useful stuff like biology since at the Academy he never really tried with the intellectual parts. And by persuaded he just bribed Naruto with ramen, simple and effective.

Dosu was shocked that this kid figured out his attack, analysed it and found a counter to it. He was ticked at this punk but knew that he was just trying to rile him up and play with his mind. Zaku looked angry that he insulted them and Dosu remembered that some minds are pretty simple enough to fall for that.

"Why you little..." he started and raised his hand at Naruto. Naruto saw an air hole and deduced that something was coming out of it so it might be smart to move but before he could do that a smoke bomb went off in the room.

"All right you baby-faced degenerates. Shut up and listen now. The Chunin exams, as of right now, have started. My name is Ibiki Morino but you can call me the face in your nightmares. And you sound ninjas, care to explain why you launched an attack at another ninja and are about to attack another" Ibiki said in his usual dark tone.

Dosu placed his arm on top of Zaku's and pushed it down and said "Sorry, got carried away. It won't happen again".

"It better not. If there is any attacks on any other ninjas until it is allowed then I will make your lives hell. Am I clear?" he said dangerously as everyone gulped and said yes.

Naruto was adjusting his hat and said "Hmm, sorry you say something?"

Ibiki frowned at the mini-Kakashi but inside thought it was a bit cute and wanted his own but couldn't find any good kids that had promise to go into his career. The only one who plays mind games is the Uzumaki but Kakashi made it clear to everyone that he is off-limits and any attempts to make him their mini-me and he will take away the thing they care about the most. To prove his point he shredded a pair of Gai's spandex jumpsuits and Gai was on the floor crying "tears of youth". He was also threatened but he had no idea how Kakashi knew about the sappy teenage romance novel collection that he hides in the darkest corners of his home but had to agree or his reputation and life was ruined.

He ignored the brat and went on, "Now we will begin the first part of the chunin exams" and an assistant held up a pile of paper, "with a written test" he said while smirking but that made him look like if nightmares condensed on his face and made a mask on it.

* * *

He was given a seat number and sat at his seat. One by one other students filed in and sat at their seats. He was sat next to Hinata, something he thanked the Sage for and Ibiki started to explain the test.

"Shut up and listen because I'm only going to say this once. This is a one hour test. As you may have noticed you have 9 questions. You have 45 minutes to answer these and I will give the final tenth question. This test is based on a negative marking system so you start of with a full 10 marks. If you get a question right you don't lose a mark, if you get it wrong or don't answer it is minus one mark. If you score a zero then obviously you fail and are kicked out of the exams, you test is marked on a team basis..." and Sakura shrieked at how unfair that was before being silenced by KI from Ibiki and told to shut it. He continued, "This is marked on a team basis so we total the marks of all team members to decide if you pass. Additionally if one team member fails then the rest do as well" and Ibiki sent KI the moment he saw the banshee take a breath, "Cheating is not tolerated and hence we have invigilators, if you are caught cheating you lose 2 points. Do the math and so if you get caught 5 times then you fail. Now, BEGIN!"

The clock started and genins rushed to read the questions.

"1. Describe the exact angle at which one must aim a shuriken from the horizontal at an opponent while elevated at 15 feet with a wind going at 1m/s north by north west and the target is standing in a trench 2 metres deep and 10 metres from your location and positioned south by south east from your current location."

"2. Describe the action of photosynthetic pigments in Elodea and how to extract it and using only chakra and 2 kunai knives and some pepper, and turn it into a lethal poison"

Kurama was scratching his head at these questions and said even Son Goku, a smart alec bijuu probably couldn't answer some of these questions! Luffy was, as you'd expect, of no help on anything that requires a thinking capacity greater than a seven year old. He still counts with his fingers!

On and on until question 9 did these insane questions go. He quickly realised that not even Kakashi-sensei could answer that last monster one so how could they do it? _"Wait why did the proctor only take away 2 points for cheating and not just throw us out? Unless they want us to cheat, but cheat in a way so you don't get caught! Wait but how do I cheat?"_ he thought, _"Worry about that later, first focus on who to cheat from"_ and 1 row in front of him and 5 seats to the left was a genin writing down answers. Some of these were impossible questions so they had to have looked at the answers or they were plants. He had to be careful though, this could be a plant designed to mess them up and he activated his negative emotion sensing and tried to see who was lying about what they wrote and who was honest. Turns out the guy was lying and a guy 3 rows and directly in front of him was writing the truth, whatever it was.

 _"Ok **Kage Bunshin no jutsu** is going to be my big playing card but how to do this. I have no discreet tricks so I have to rely on one fact. I have 4 times to get caught and if I'm caught 5 times then I'm done. This is just like chess, I only have 4 moves until Kakashi wins so the same thing here. I can only get caught four times. The focus of the test is not the points, its cheating so no one gives a damn if I score only 1 or 2 but I have to score something!"_ he thought and formulated a plan.

First, surroundings. They are game changers. He was in a rectangular room with 14 rows of genins, most eggheads if they didn't get the trick behind this. He looked at the sides and there was the door he came from, no use there. There were 14 windows, one between each row and one next to Ibiki and they were all opened to let in a draft on a hot day. Bingo. The windows were elevated and there was the academy side roof outside these windows. Elevated just enough for someone to crouch down and not be seen, but there goes 1 move if he is seen on the roof. He could use **Fuuton: Reppusho** and scatter the papers and there is another move gone as they could sense the chakra and hence his presence so total of 2 moves so far. Then grab a paper that wasn't his and there goes another move if he is seen and quickly change the name and change some words and the handwriting and thats the final move. He was going to learn sealing so Kurama made him improve his handwriting and writing speed. Piece of cake and took four moves so he had 1 move or 2 marks left.

Wait there was a problem. If he can't see the place he wants to put a Kage Bunshin, he can't make it discreet and would be caught. Kurama told him that might not be the case. The Kage Bunshin that went to the Hokage tower just was about to wrap up his conversation to the Hokage and didn't dispel yet. Naruto asked Kurama to tell him what to do and Kurama obliged. After 20 minutes the Kage Bunshin raced back discreetly to the location, he thought about sending him to the library but no library could help you answer some of these monster questions so went back to plan A.

Hinata saw Naruto had a blank paper and was going to offer to help Naruto but saw a kage bunshin of Naruto on the roof with her byakugan and realised he had a plan. A pencil went flying to a genin near Naruto and he realised that he was caught cheating 5 times. Naruto realised these guys meant business and readied the clone.

It was 30 minutes and Naruto-bunshin started the plan. He let out a clap and enhanced it with wind chakra and Kurama sent a tiny fraction of his chakra and said mentally _**"Fuuton: Reppusho"**_ and a strong gust of wind surged through the room and that was the cue. There was pandemonium and papers were flying everywhere and a few went out the window and he hoped that those weren't his friends papers or sadly his teammates but that helps as he could claim if someone questioned him saying that's his paper even though he changed it, he could say the paper he took was his and maybe the person's paper went out the window. Naruto **Soru** ed and grabbed the paper he wanted and got back to his desk and furiously started to scribble on the paper but with the people flocking around trying to pick up the papers he wasn't noticed. Wait, still panicking, hold on! He looked at Ibiki and the other proctors and they did nothing at all, not even a "Calm down" or "shut up". This proved his theory that it wasn't about the marks. Ibiki smirked at Naruto as he put his pencil down and was done and Ibiki looked more devilish than ever and Naruto put on his best innocent face but he could guess that Ibiki saw through his plan and knew about what he was up to so Naruto made sure to rub it in his face that he got away with it and it was legal.

As soon as order was restored he noticed that all his friends and teammates papers were intact and even better Kabuto's went out the window, score! People who lost their papers had been given new papers and told to go to another room and start all over again with a different time. They did and were placed in individual cubicles and that was the perfect chance for Ibiki to knock out Kabuto and he shunshinned him to Inoichi for a good mind read and went back to the first room. He heard orders from Inoichi in his mind and immediately followed them through to get Kabuto to the T&I without drawing suspicion and the brat Naruto made it too easy for him and he didn't even know it.

Naruto finished and looked back at how other genin cheated. Hinata-chan used her byakugan and so did that other Hyuuga, Neji. Kiba used Akamaru who looked over papers and barked out answers but since only Kiba could understand him they couldn't fault him. Shino used insects to look at other people's papers and get them to tell him the answers. Tenten used rotating mirrors that she controlled with ninja wire and was on the ceiling in a corner so unless you were looking for it, you would miss it and Lee adjusted his headband to catch a reflection of a paper and copied off that. Shikamaru and Choji relied on Ino who used her **Mind Transfer Jutsu** on Sakura and she looked at her answers and then did the jutsu on Shikamaru and Choji and gave them the answers. Sakura had books bought all over the elemental nations from her civilian parents so she knew every answer that was theory based as that was all she was good for. Sasuke used his sharingan to copy someone and got the answers. The Sound ninja used some sort of trick where they heard the tapping of the pencil on the table and worked out what the words were (or that's what Naruto assumed from the chakra going to their ears as his Negative Emotion sensing ability could also sense chakra flow and its presence to the point of seeing its presence on different body parts). Gaara was closing one eye and materialising an eye made of sand and sent some sand to distract a genin before getting his answers from the discreet floating eyeball. Kankuro asked if he could go to the toilet and was escorted by a proctor, wait that guy wasn't supposed to be there! Was he an extra or was this Kankuro's trick? He thought back to the man sized package on his back and at the robotic motion of the proctor and deduced that Kankuro was a puppet user and his puppet-proctor had answer sheets. He filed that piece of information about the guy away for later use in a fight against him.

Kakashi told him about these guys once in a chess match. The puppet had all sorts of tricks but they were reliant on them and they had low physical abilities but their key was positioning. They set up traps beforehand to catch anyone who tries to go for close combat and uses a puppet to cover their escape once they run out. The counter was using long range attacks on them and he had a good one by just clapping so he would be fine. That described the situation of the game perfectly as Naruto moved in to take his rook with a queen but fell for a trap where the King killed her. Naruto was ticked as that was arguably not allowed but Kakashi said everything is allowed on a battlefield as long as you win and Naruto had to agree with him there.

As the time drew to 45 minutes Ibiki yelled at them, "Put your papers down and stop scribbling now!" and Kankuro walked into the room with his puppet.

"Ahh, you're here for the last question. I hope your trip to the bathroom was an enlightening experience" he said and Kankuro frowned as Ibiki saw through the trick. He walked to his seat and dropped a small pellet at Temari's desk as Naruto heard a small thud from his enhanced hearing and that had to be the answers pack in mini.

"Now for the final question there are more rules. First rule is that you can choose not to take this question. If you choose to not take it you get a zero and your team is kicked out and..." he started but Temari looked shocked and asked, "Wait what? What's the catch if we don't take it?". Ibiki chuckled sinisterly and continued "You didn't let me finish. If you do choose to take the question but get it wrong then not only do you fail and hence your team fails as well. You are forbidden from taking the Chunin exams ever again and hence you will remain a genin permanently!". Everyone looked at him in shock.

Kiba stood up and yelled, "That's BS. There are loads of people here that already took the exam before".

Ibiki said, "Well, it's a crying shame that you have me as a proctor. Now make your decision. Raise your hand if you wish to not take the question. If you don't take it then you can leave and try next year. It's that simple".

Sakura looked worried and was going to raise her hand but caught a glare from Sasuke and stopped herself. Lots of the other genin were raising their hands and leaving in droves and meanwhile Naruto was thinking in his head.

 _"What's the trick here? If you give up you can fight another day but if you continue and fail it's game over?"_ he thought furiously.

 _"I think I know"_ Luffy said.

 **"You? Hate to break it to you but using a brain isn't one of your skills,"** Kurama said skeptically at the idiot.

 _"No. Naruto it comes down to this, if your fighting an army or every soldier in the navy and everyone tells you it's impossible to do something and you'll die. Do you run away from that fight or do you charge in? Do you choose to fight knowing that you could die but go down fighting with no regrets or back away and ignore the fight? That's what he wants to see, if your man enough to have faith in yourself to head into a fight and never stop believing that you can accomplish your goal as long as you never stop doubting yourself over something as stupid as dying. Not doubting oneself, that is true strength."_ he said seriously to the both of them.

 **"That's deep, Luffy"** Kurama said in surprise at what he said.

 _"I choose to die fighting, and if I die then so be it. I won't live with regrets"_ he thought with conviction and Kurama and Luffy smiled at that.

Hinata was shaking at this and her hand was twitching as she was stuck between the fear of failure and her new inner strength of fighting with every bit of her spirit and didn't know what to do.

Naruto saw this and stood up and banged on the table and said out loud, "I won't quit. I will never, ever quit. Listen up, scar-face. I don't care if I fail, I don't care if I get stuck as a genin for the rest of my life. But I swear I will become Hokage and I won't ever back down. I choose to go for this stupid question and if I go down fighting then so be it, at least I won't have any regrets about it. I never doubted myself on anything in my life and I'm not starting now. Never doubting yourself, that is true strength!"

Everyone in the room looked at Naruto, who had the guts to say that to the proctor and started to grow a backbone. Hinata took his words to heart and stopped shivering and looked ready for battle.

 _"Why that little...He made everyone grow a spine and now no one is shaking. They seem to be rallying around this kid like a leader. This just isn't my day, now the rest of the jonins are going to get in my face that the test was too easy. Heh, that brat could be something great_ " he thought to himself.

"Well since you are certain there is only one thing left to say. You've all passed the first round of the Chunin exams!" he said and everyone was speechless, other than Naruto.

"What, what about the last question?" Temari asked in confusion.

He laughed and said, "There was never a last question. Your decision to stay was the answer to the last question!"

"Let me explain. This question was designed to test one of the most important qualities of a chunin. Guts. Do you have what it takes to go on a mission, knowing that you may die? If a mission asks you to go steal a document, and it is covered with guards that know you will attack? Do you want to run away or go for it? You do it. There are missions that seem like suicide but you never let doubt cloud your mind. You only think of the goal and how to do it and suddenly it seems a lot less impossible than you think." he said. He removed his headband and the cloth covering his head and showed his head to the rest of them.

"There are times when you will have to give your life for the goal" and Naruto got a good look at his head.

 _"Burn marks, acupuncture needles! What happened to this guy!"_ he thought in fear of that happening to his precious people.

 _"Wow when Zoro had a scar he looked cool but this guy looks plain scary"_ Luffy said.

Ibiki put on his head covering and headband and was going to continue but was cut off.

"Ok what about the other 9 questions, were they just a waste of time?" Temari asked.

"No. They were testing another aspect, information gathering. You were put in a situation where you had to cheat as some of these questions were ridiculous and impossible. It was either cheat or fail, but if you get caught cheating then you lose. I placed plants here who knew the answers and you tried to copy them. But misinformation is worse than no information and there was one plant who wrote down the wrong answers. If we saw you copy off him, you failed and were thrown out." he explained.

"Now there is nothing left but to wish you good luck. Those who lost their papers will continue and on no account will you tell them about the tenth question and..." was interrupted by something that went through the window.

A banner was propped up on kunai and a ninja appeared in front of them. " _The greatest Kunoichi to live, Anko Mitarashi"_ the banner said and a ninja in a trench coat yelled at them "Ok you maggots, don't start to celebrate as the second part of the Chunin exams has just begun".

"Anko, your early. Again" Ibiki deadpanned. She sweat dropped and looked sheepish and she took a good look at the number of candidates left. "You let this many candidates pass Ibiki!" she said, "Wow you must have gotten soft in old age".

Ibiki looked ticked and glared at Naruto but caught himself, "Or a stronger crop of candidates this year".

"Meh, I bet I can cut down a huge chunk of these losers" Anko said nonchalantly, "All right you little maggots, follow me to training ground number 44" and on that note she leapt out the window with the rest of the genin in tow.

* * *

"And that is all we could get from Yakushi Kabuto, Hokage-sama" Inoichi concluded.

The Hokage was angered more than ever that his greatest shame was back, "So he tricked Suna into betraying us and is attacking on the chunin exam finals and he wants to give Sasuke a curse mark in the second stage and is posing as a genin but we don't know which genin".

Inoichi tried his best to mind walk but Kabuto had several seals to stop his mind being read. They were crudely done but they did the job and Inoichi could only get so much. Then they heard that Kabuto escaped on his way to prision and heard that a few glimpses of the guy were caught and he was seen heading to the forest of death as that is where his master will be to warn him that Konoha knows of his plan.

"This could be an opportunity" Sarutobi said, "We know where he is going to be, he is going after Sasuke and he will be seen at the forest of death".

"But Naruto and Sakura's lives will be endangered if Orochimaru attacks them, we can't use the team as bait!" Inoichi exclaimed.

"We're not using the team as bait. I'm changing the second round to an individual test. We keep a watch on Sasuke with our best ANBU and myself and finally put down the snake" he said.

"That's risky but the rewards are too good to pass up" he said to the Hokage.

"So it's agreed, contact Anko and tell her my plan for the exam" he said, "I want..."

* * *

Anko was told of a last minute change to the exam. She was confused at what her boss was thinking but she isn't paid to do that so...meh. All right, now to give the new instructions to the brats.

"All right you maggots, this is my home away from home. Or as everyone else loves to call it, the forest of death" she said. Naruto had his eyes closed and was looking calmly and Anko decided to scare him.

She threw a kunai at him and Naruto picked up on it with his sensing ability and deflected it with his own kunai before Anko got behind him and held him in a deadlock. "Hmm, just because you think you can dodge a kunai, does that mean you're ready for this, boy? This forest will break you and everyone else if you let down your guard for a second" she said into his ear and Hinata was visibly angry at that woman getting too close to Naruto-kun.

"I can barely wait. This sounds like an awesome adventure!" he said confidently and took a line from Luffy.

A grass ninja threw the kunai back at Anko and she caught it and let Naruto out of the deadlock. "Proctor, you dropped your kunai and I wanted to give it back" she said with her long tongue, creeping the heck out of everyone. Anko looked surprised and said nicely "Ok, but if you attack a proctor again then you will be disqualified" and the Grass ninja nodded.

Naruto used his negative emotion sensing and was nearly overwhelmed by the taint and evil rolling off that Grass ninja and decided to keep his distance from that ninja and sent a kage bunshin with that info to the Hokage again.

"All right you maggots now here are some forms to sign. If you sign these forms then Konoha is not liable in any way if you die and some of you will certainly die so sign now if you want to take the exams" she said and handed out forms. Everyone Naruto knew signed the form and he did as well.

"All right, those of you who signed here is how this is going to work. Pick a number card out of this box individually and pin that number onto your shirt and this is your candidate card" she said and handed out a box with numbers in it.

Naruto got the number 42 (wonder why?) and took a good look at what number everyone else had. As he took the number a person holding a piece of paper had him write his name and his number on a table. They had to wait for 15 minutes as Anko went to get another box and Naruto walked around a little bit and looked at the different numbers. Kurama told him to do this but they had no way of knowing what was coming next.

"All right now from this box there is a plate with another number and you must pick one out of this. You cannot show the number of this plate to anyone else other than my assistant who is keeping track of the numbers so keep it secret. This is your plate card," she said and again everyone picked up a plate and had the plate and wrote down what number they had and Naruto picked up number 13 (well that sucks) and that was written next to his name and candidate number.

"Now you will be hunting the person who has the name candidate number as your plate number" she said and as soon as she said that a look of shock. "Shut up, this works by a point system. Your candidate card is worth 2 points. The target's card is worth 3 points and any other card is worth 1 point. We know who is hunting who but you don't so I hope you had a good look while I was gone. To pass the exam, you will have to get a total of 5 points minimum. Hence you will have to take other people's candidate cards and head to the centre of the forest where there is a tower. You have a time limit of 5 days to do this and in this forest, anything goes. Even killing. As soon as we finish some last minute business then you will enter the forest. Any questions?" she said. While she was talking Naruto hid his card inside his pocket and had a kage bunshin henge into the number 13 so in a sense he was hunting himself and hoped that no one remembered his number and everyone else was hiding their cards and plates so no one else could see.

"Umm...what do we eat?" Choji asked.

"There are plenty of wild animals and fish in the river and stuff like that in the forest. If you didn't pack some rations before you went to the exams then that's your answer" she said.

"Can we give up in the exam partway?" Shikamaru asked.

Anko deadpanned and said, "You're kidding, in a real fight you can't just say "I give up". Well you can but you will be killed. Any other questions? No, then get ready. Head to an entrance and there's enough for 1 per person so head to any entrance and get ready for the signal"

 _"This is a crazy exam. Heck, we're hunters now. The easy path is to stalk the candidate who's card you have to take and keep a good eye on your own. Another way is to just randomly take cards from other candidates but then you set yourself up as being hunted by at least 4 other guys who want one of your candidate cards."_ he thought to himself as he went to an entrance and got ready.

He then recalled who was his primary target and he had a funny feeling on who was hunting him and they were...

 _ **CLIFFHANGER NO JUTSU! MAN I AM EVIL! I WANTED SARUTOBI TO LIVE AND I SAY THAT NOW AS THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO CHANGE MY MIND ON THAT BECAUSE I LIKE THE OLD MAN SO HE HAS A HEADS UP ON THE INVASION PLAN. BUT I WILL PUT UP A POLL TO GIVE YOU A CHOICE ON WHO NARUTO HUNTS BUT I CHOSE THE HUNTER ALREADY AND THIS WILL BE UP FOR 3 OR 4 MORE DAYS. A GOLD STAR FOR ANYONE WHO GOT THE REFERENCE TO HUNTER X HUNTER WHO USED THE FORMAT FOR THEIR HUNTER EXAM AND THE NEXT UPDATE WILL BE AFTER AT LEAST 5-7 DAYS. BYE!**_


	6. Chapter 6: Chunin exams - 2

**Naruto: The Dark Rubber Ninja**

Summary:

After the wave mission Naruto rethinks life as a ninja and and questions his purpose. That stray thought created ripples that changed the entire world be it for better or worse. Now after finding the yami yami no mi and gomu gomu no mi the future is in his hands. Sasu/Saku/council bashing and NaruHina. Smarter and stronger Naruto. Rated T.

 **Jutsu/summons/bijuu/creepy inner banshee spirits: Bold**  
 _Thoughts: Italics/writing  
Luffy: Underline and_ italics  
Emphasis in speech: Underline

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or One Piece. Please review and give me advice to improve.**

 **gamelover41592:**

 **Naruto will be able to steal powers like Blackbeard but will learn how to do that much later.**

 **mightyvish + xirons + za worlda + JAIMOL + Guest:**

 **Thank you for your kind review**

 **LightningBlade49:**

 **Naruto's power is going to make a big splash on everyone so I wanted it to be secret, even to Kabuto and Orochimaru. As for Naruto vs Gaara that is going to be awesome spectacle.**

 **psychopath556:**

 **Sorry but I'm dead set on NaruHina. If a load of people keep asking then I may change it but otherwise no.**

 **Vha de Keira:**

 **Thank you for your comments and to answer your questions. Hinata's devil fruit will be up in a poll later. Naruto's enemy has been decided and as for his teacher in the finals, that's a sec~ret!**

 **DBlade59:**

 **Woah that's a LOT of devil fruits and sorry but I don't want to just shove devil fruit after fruit into Naruto, I want him to expand on his current arsenal and go further with what he has.**

 **Mohit333Sharma:**

 **Sorry but I like NaruHIna so it stays and Fuinjutsu is a yes but Chakra chains...maybe not.**

 **Devilscreed:**

 **I will try to tone down the author jokes if you people think that. Apologies, the author was just trying to have some fun.**

 **Jonnywolf:**

 **All the characters you mentioned in your review are going to be in this chapter.**

 **CrimsonSylvan:**

 **Both of them will be given a beat down in this chapter**

 **TeddyVandera:**

 **All the powers Naruto has will mix and become combos.**

 **Kitty Katrona + ICHeart:**

 **It was a cruel cliffhanger but still the best ones always leave you hanging.**

 **DBlade59:**

 **Your suggestions were taken into account and I have incorporated some of it into this chapter. Thank you for your contributions. And it's a no to more Devil Fruits this early.**

 **ChloboShoka:**

 **Thank you for your reviews and your contributions are valued. To clarify to everyone it was Ino that gossips.**

 **Byakudan:**

 **Since a lot of people have been asking for a harem I will put up a poll about harem and what girls are in. I FORBID SAKURA ENTRY NO MATTER WHAT YOU ALL SAY!**

 **Wolfone10:**

 **Kabuto had faulty mind seals that linked to Orochimaru so they were going to hold him to get that info. Maybe I should have included that, sorry and Orochimaru can't kill Kabuto since he is too useful as a medic.**

 **Jakobkonradstein + Jakob:**

 **I will take that into consideration. You are entitled to your own opinion and I implore you to voice it out and I do see your point but I still believe overall Sasuke and Sakura are total jerks to Naruto with only a few redeeming qualities, which I removed so I suppose in this fic they are bigger jerks than in the anime.**

 **StrongGuy159 + Soul D Phoenix:**

 **I will try to update more often if I can.**

Chapter 5: Chunin exams - 2

Naruto was swinging from branch to branch and fully utilising his gomu gomu no mi powers to swing from branch to branch, he started from the area furthest to the grass ninja who was rotten with hatred so he travelled for a few hours and got stuck in a giant spider nest. Needless to say out blond hero freaked out when that happened and was stuck trying to escape the place for the past 2 days.

* * *

Flashback:

 **"Naruto, stay focused. This forest is practically filled with danger"** Kurama warned.

"You worry to much Kuram-AAAHH!" Naruto said and freaked out when 5 giant spiders the size out horses showed up. They eyed Naruto and clicked their pincers in anticipation.

 _"WOAH! Giant Spiders! COOL!"_ Luffy said with stars in his eyes.

Naruto got into a battle stance and the spiders charged forwards. One spider shot a web at his hands and tried to stop him from moving.

"Not gonna work!" Naruto said and shot his free hand backwards and it stretched about 2 metres " **Gomu gomu no pistol**!" and his hand shot forwards and nailed the spider in the head and it let go of the web. Naruto used that distraction to unseal his swords and got into a Santoryu stance. Naruto had his head down and put the sword in his hands up while his mouth sword was horizontal.

" **Santoryu: Onigiri** " Naruto said and dashed forwards and appeared behind hit and 3 slice marks appeared on the spider and it collapsed. The other spiders were enraged at this and 3 of them charged in.

2 of them scuttled along the trees and Naruto while one charged in. He got ready to attack but a small shadow could be seen near him. He activated his sesning ability and saw the last one was trying to jump on him. He rolled backwards before that could happen and the spider fell the the ground and charged at Naruto.

 **"Taka Nami"** Naruto called and slashed his swords quickly and channeled fuuton chakra through the blades and sent a red wave of wind _**(A/N Zoro's attacks are blue so I changed it to make Naruto's red, I'm not the biggest fan of orange and red ties in with the demonic swords better)**_ at the spider who was blown back and hit a spider who was charging behind it. The other two who were crawling along the trees shot a green liquid at Naruto and he **Soru** ed out of the way. Good thing to because the stiff melted the ground and trees.

 _"Acid spitting Spiders. This is off to a great start"_ Naruto thought in sarcasm. He decided to get rid of the trees around him, at least that ought to get them on the ground.

" **Santoryu: Gomu Cyclone** " Naruto called out one of his combo move and he spun in a circle with fuuton chakra in his blades and extended his arms out. With his arms extended he had a diameter of 2 metres and slashed at the trees near the clearing and with fuuton chakra the trees were all cut down and some of the winds blew back the two spiders and they jumped towards the other two.

Naruto used this chance to leap into the air and shot out his arms sideways and his swords embedded themselves into two trees that were not cut down. He was looking down at the spiders and called out.

 **"Gomu gomu no stamp gatling!"** Naruto called and shot his legs down on the spiders and repeated this relentlessly until his legs became a blur and the spiders suffered multiple injuries from the raining blows.

Naruto pulled out the swords and in one final move shot his leg up into the air by 5 metres and brought his heel down on the spiders. He shouted, " **Gomu gomu no Ono**!" and hit the spiders hard and an explosion was heard. The four spiders were lying in a crater and Naruto's leg went back to normal length and he landed back onto the ground.

"Man, this is a great start" he said to himself sarcastically and kept moving.

* * *

He landed in at least 3 spider nests and this was really starting to tick him off but it would all be worth it to take that badge from the smug prick. That's right, his target was Sasuke! Kurama was jumping for joy when they get to lay the smack down on this prick and Luffy had no problems with it, considering the jerk would back stab Naruto in a heartbeat.

BUT THIS FOREST WAS HUGE! Naruto had trouble using his negative emotion sensing since there were a lot of people with malicious intent and bent on trying to kill each other so he couldn't pinpoint the prick anywhere. He tried to find other contenders but that was hard since all the animals wanted to kill him as well and he got mixed up between a participant and a killer centipede. A giant killer centipede about 7 metres long, he managed to bring it down with a good kicking combo but still this forest is CRAZY!

 _"Naruto, calm down. If you keep wandering around, you'll just get lost like Zoro"_ Luffy said, _"It's only day 3 and you still have time"._

"Ok, Ok. I'm calming down!" Naruto said and took a few deep breaths and did a backflip and dodged a boar that was trying to run him over. Naruto rushed at it and sliced it with Onigiri and the boar died immediately. Naruto made sure no one was around and then used Black Hole to suck in the Boar to eat later, in a preferably safer location.

 _"Dinner, nice job Naruto!"_ Luffy said with his mouth watering.

"I can't find anything other than killer animals. How the heck am I supposed to get a badge!" Naruto yelled in frustration.

 **"Well, it's simple. You can't Naruto"** Kurama said.

 _"How is that supposed to help Kurama?"_ Naruto asked.

 **"I said YOU can't. You need someone else's help if you want to succeed"** Kurama said.

 _"Kurama, it's a free for all battle royale. How is Naruto going to get help?"_ Luffy asked.

 **"Well, think geniuses. Who does Naruto know that can track down others and is trustworthy"** Kurama said.

"HINATA-CHAN" Naruto yelled as the idea hit him and he fell out of the trees and landed on a giant scorpion by accident, _"Aw man, put that thought on hold"_ Naruto thought.

 **"Tekkai hammer!"** Naruto said and strengthened his arms with Tekkai and put his hands together and crossed his fingers and brought his arm down on the Scorpion who yelled in pain. Naruto jumped off the scorpion and to the side of its head and pulled his up and kicked the Scorpions neck with his heel, **"Collier shoot"** Naruto yelled and the scorpion was sent flying away.

Naruto jumped back to the trees and continued tree hopping, _"So how do I find Hinata-chan?"_ Naruto thought.

 **"Kit, she has no hatred in her heart like you"** Kurama said and a light bulb went inside Naruto's head.

 _"That's right. So if I turn on my senses then I just need to look for a place where there's zero hatred! You're a genius Kurama and with Hinata's Byakugan wE can find Sasuke easily!"_ Naruto thought in excitement.

 _"Wait i just had a thought"_ Luffy said and Kurama looked at him in disbelief and shock while Naruto almost fell out of the trees again.

 **"You had a thought?"** Kurama said sceptically, **"That never happened before, who are you and what have you done with the real Monkey. D Luffy?"** he asked.

 _"What if Hinata has to hunt you?"_ Luffy asked and Naruto and Kurama were feeling stupid at not thinking about that.

 **"That would be a problem"** Kurama said.

 _"I told you guys I think I have a hunch who's hunting me"_ Naruto said, _"After we got the plate numbers I noticed Sakura, Gaara, Puppet man, Mummy guy, Kiba and that grass ninja eyeing me. I didn't see Hinata-chan looking at me like that"._

 **"That's not exactly a smart way to see who's hunting you and that's quite a list. I think if you come across any of them, they are likely to attack you"** Kurama said.

 _"This is a battle royale, everyone is going to attack you"_ Luffy said back to Kurama.

 **"Well you can always work with her to collect tags from other candidates"** Kurama said and Luffy had to agree with that.

"Ok, that sounds like a plan, thanks you guys!" Naruto thought and activated his negative emotion sensing ability again and stretched it across the forest and searched for a person with no hatred, so literally a blank spot. Naruto managed to find one two kilometres west but he sensed a lot of hatred moving towards that spot.

"Hinata-chan's in trouble" Naruto thought and he immediately changed direction and grabbed two tree trunks with his hands and he jumped back as far as possible and stretched his arms a considerable length before loosening his grip on the trunks and shot himself forwards, **"Gomu gomu no rocket!"** he said as he flew across the forest.

* * *

Hinata was terrified. She was surrounded by three Kumo genin and with her byakugan she saw a bunch of crocodiles heading this way from the river. She tried to explain it to them but they thought she was bluffing and proceeded to fight. She barely managed to hold up against three ninja and try to warn them about the incoming crocodiles.

"Heh, the Raikage is going to give us a fortune for this" one said with a smirk and Hinata's blood ran cold.

"Wh-what?" she stuttered fearfully.

"Don't you get it already. We don't care about these exams, our mission was to kidnap you and deliver you to Kumo in a neatly wrapped bow" another laughed out.

"Shut it, don't blab about the mission. Let's just get it over with" the last one said while holding a body-bag.

Hinata collapsed on her knees and was almost crying at the situation but she wouldn't let tears fall. _"I won't give these monsters any tears"_ she thought viciously but kept thinking at the same time, _"Naruto-kun, I can't win. I'm sorry for letting you down"_

One was going to knock her out but a scream pierced the forest and all of them looked up.

"Hey did you hear that!" one said.

"yeah, it's getting louder" the second one said.

"No it's getting closer! Look out" the last one said.

As the screaming became louder they could hear what it was screaming.

"I OVERSHOT IT!" Naruto yelled as he stretched back too much again and he was soaring above the jungle like a bird. A helpless, flightless and brainless one. Naruto could see nothing with all the trees blocking his view but with his senses he could still sense Hinata.

 _"Darn, I'm gonna go too far"_ he thought, _"I need to stop somehow_ " and he stretched his arm and grabbed a tree trunk right behind the Kumo ninjas. He still kept going and with his arm wrapped around the trunk his arm stretched a metre and he was visible to Hinata and the ninjas who were jaw-dropping at what they were seeing. Naruto managed to stop himself but then his arm pulled back and he was sent flying again backwards and launched himself from the tree, accidentally and bowled over the three Kumo ninja and landed on top of Hinata.

"Ow, Ow, Ow. Wait I'm made of rubber so it doesn't hurt" Naruto said to himself and then opened his eyes and saw Hinata's face which was very, very red. "Oh hi Hinata-chan" Naruto said and she managed to stutter back, "H-H-Hi".

Naruto got off of Hinata and dusted himself and looked at the three ninja he knocked over. He switched back to idiot mode to get these guys to underestimate him.

"Oh, why are you on the ground. You might catch a cold" Naruto said when he looked at the three ninja. They jumped back up and yelled at him with shark teeth, "YOU DID THAT TO US!"

"I did?" Naruto said while rubbing the back of his head and put on his hat, "Oh sorry. I was just looking for Hinata-chan and crashed in here. My bad for knocking you three out in one go"

"You didn't knock us out!" one yelled back.

"Oh then I retract my apology" Naruto said back to them.

"Idiot you still hit us!" he said back.

"So do you want my apology or not?" Naruto asked in confusion.

"NO!" they yelled back at him.

"So why did you get mad when I knocked you over in one go?" Naruto asked.

"The way you said it made us sound weak" the first one yelled back.

"So I don't have to apologise?" Naruto asked again.

"YES" he yelled back.

"So your Ok with it if I hit you?" Naruto asked.

"YES!" the yelled back at him but one stopped, "Wait..."

" **Gomu gomu no Bazooka** " Naruto already said and reared his arms back and shot both of them at the first genin's stomach who then got knocked out for real and was sent flying and bashed into a thick tree trunk behind him and was unconscious.

"Crud, he took out D in one blow" one of them said.

"M, what do we do?" the other one said.

M replied back, "Our mission is to take them out U and it's two vs one. Be careful of the Straw Hat guy".

"D, U and M? DUM" Naruto asked and the two got tick marks.

"Shut up!" they yelled back at him, seriously that Straw Hat guy was annoying as hell! Naruto cracked up and started to laugh, "Seriously DUM, is your sensei B?" he said between laughs.

"How did you know?" U asked and M swatted him on the head and Naruto laughed even harder and even Hinata giggled a bit.

"DUMB! Seriously, man you guys are hilarious!" Naruto said as he started to cry. The other two were starting to get ticked, this is why they hated the one letter names and the guy who was assigning teams in Kumo did this on purpose to troll everyone.

"Shut it, we're not dumb. Not get lost so we can complete the mission" U yelled at him and M swatted him again and reprimanded him. Naruto stopped laughing and his eyes were shadowed by the hat and he growled, "Mission?"

Hinata stood up and told Naruto what she heard, "Their mission was to kidnap me. I think it was for my bloodline, Kumo tried it before with me" she said to Naruto and Naruto's eyes became stone cold and glared at the two of them who had shivers running up their spine.

"You were going to kidnap someone for their bloodline?" he said dangerously, "You tried to kidnap and hurt my friend. I'm going to kick your butts" he said and got ready to fight.

"Bring it Straw Hat" M said and they threw a set of Kunai with explosive notes and Naruto but Hinata stepped forwards and covered him.

" **8 Trigrams Rotation** " Hinata said and spun in a circle and let out chakra from all her tenketsus and created a shield that protected them and the explosions didn't harm them. The ninjas used this as a distraction and hid themselves. Naruto activated his senses and found one waiting on top of him and another behind the both of them. They must be morons if they thought hiding could shield them from the Byakugan but they had a surprise. After Hinata stopped spinning they set their plan in motion.

M dropped down from the top and was attached to U with ninja wire. M leaped down and landed on the floor with the wire touching Naruto and Hinata and Naruto realised what their plan was.

 **"Raiton: Shock current"** they yelled simultaneously and electricity flowed between the wires. Naruto wrapped one arm around Hinata and another grabbed the wire. Naruto had his gomu gomu no mi active and felt nothing as the electricity flowed. The rubber acted as an insulator and neither of them were affected by the electricity, much to the shock of the ninja.

"Too bad dumb duo, I'm made of rubber" Naruto said and pulled on the wire and tugged on it and M was sent right at him.

Naruto leapt forward, swept his leg forwards and activated Tekkai and nailed M in the torso and called out, " **Iron Veau Shot** " and M had the wind knocked out of him and was knocked backwards and made another crater in the tree with D. Since M was knocked back U was still tied to the string and was shot forwards to a ready Hinata looking for vengeance.

" **2 palms** ", " **4 palms** ", " **8 palms** ", " **16 palms** ", " **32 Palms** " and " **8 trigrams 64 palms** " Hinata called and and jabbed at the major tenketsus while moving gracefully and in a fluid motion and he collapsed, unconscious as well.

"That was awesome Hinata-chan!" Naruto said looking impressed and Hinata blushed. She was working hard with her dad to modify the juuken to use better as her movements were more fluid and not as rigid as the current taijutsu forms. Then she remembered Naruto was looking for her and jumped back in her taijutsu stance.

"Naruto-kun, why were you looking for me?" she said at Naruto who realised she got the wrong idea and he waved his hands while looking flustered.

"No, no I'm not hunting you" he said and pulled out his plate number and it said 13, "I'm hunting for Sasuke-teme not you" he said and she calmed down. She couldn't see any chakra in the plate so it was real and not a henged clone like his name tag.

"Ok Naruto-kun, I'm sorry" she said with a blush.

"It's ok, Hinata-chan" he said with a grin, "You can take the badges off these creeps" Naruto said and Hinata looked surprised, "But Naruto-kun, you took out 2 of them but I only took out 1".

"Nah, they wanted to kidnap you so I beat them up, I don't want their badges anyway and since I'm asking for your help it's only fair you take the badges" Naruto said and made some Kage Bunshins who searched the three ninjas and they managed to find the name tags and handed then to Hinata.

Suddenly a roar pierced the woods and Hinata and Naruto jumped in fright and looked towards the source and saw 3 giant crocodiles crawl towards them.

"You gotta be kidding me!" Naruto said with a sigh and rushed towards the first one.

 **"Gomu gomu no gatling!"** Naruto said as he stretched his fists forwards repeatedly in a blurry, rapid barrage of punches onto the crocodiles who was buffeted by the barrage of blows and were pushed back.

 **"Gomu gomu no pistol!"** Naruto said as he stretched his fish back and shot it forwards into the first Crocodile's head and knocked it out.

 **"Anti-manner Kick Course"** Naruto called as he turned around and kicked his legs into a 180° and the second Crocodile was blown back and struck a tree with its back and was knocked out.

The last crocodile tried to crush Naruto with its hand and hold him down but Naruto just said **"Kami-e"** and became like paper and moved around the blow and to the side again. He unsealed his swords again and held them with two of them with the blade going down behind his back and called out **"Santoryu: Tora Gari"** and slashed down on the Crocodile's side and it became unconscious.

"And that is how it's done" Naruto said as he put his swords back he then looked up at the sky and noticed it was already night and his stomach rumbled, "Hinata-chan, would you like some dinner?" he said with a smile.

* * *

The two of them camped in a small cave that Hinata found with her byakugan. It was well hidden and it wouldn't be seen unless you were looking for it as it was next to a river so that meant it was easy to fish and get water.

"This is a great place, Hinata-chan" Naruto said with a whistle.

"T-Thank you" she stuttered back. Naruto was carrying all three crocodiles with some clones and the clones dropped them and started a fire to cook them on roast. Luffy's survival skills that he learnt from his torture with Garp came in handy and Naruto knew how to cook crocodiles from Luffy.

After they got the fire going and crocodiles cooked, Naruto was eating ravenously while Hinata looked like she was trying to find the right words to ask something.

"N-Naruto-kun, um...h-how does yo-your arm stretch so much?" she asked Naruto and Naruto mentally reprimanded himself.

 _"I forgot I never told Hinata-chan about my devil fruits and the rest of it"_ Naruto thought.

 **"Oh yeah, you only told her about having me inside you and also not the full story"** Kurama said.

 _"I think you should tell her. She's your friend and friends shouldn't keep secrets"_ Luffy said.

 **"You can't keep a secret anyway Luffy so of course all your friends and even your enemies knew everything about you!"** Kurama snapped back at him.

 _"Ok, I'll tel her"_ Naruto thought.

"N-Naruto-kun?" Hinata said, Naruto spaces out when he talks to Kurama and Luffy and he snapped back to reality.

"Ok, Hinata-chan. But this is an S-class secret so please don't tell anyone" Naruto said seriously and Hinata was surprised but nodded. Naruto used his senses and he couldn't feel hatred anywhere nearby so he decided to tell her.

"Hinata this may seem crazy but I better start at the beginning" Naruto said and Hinata paid attention.

"When I came back from the graves of Zabuza and Haku I met the Kyuubi in my dreams" Naruto said and Hinata was shocked, "T-The Kyuubi!" and Naruto continued, "Yeah, the Kyuubi. He wanted to talk to me about Konoha and why I keep trying to be the Hokage and I told him about how I endure and my dream to make an ideal world without hatred and war" and Hinata was surprised at that dream, "That's amazing Naruto-kun" she whispered with a smile, "I talked to him for a while and I made friends with him" and Hinata was mind blown and said "Wait, wait, wait FRIENDS! Naruto-kun he destroyed Konoha!"

"I know but it wasn't his fault. An Uchiha who claimed to be Madara controlled him with the sharingan and made him rampage in Konoha, he may be powerful but even he can't just pop out of nowhere. The Uchiha guy summoned him, you heard about this story right" Naruto said and Hinata remembered what she heard about the Kyuubi attack about a masked Uchiha.

"I made friends with him because I told him I will find him a place in the world and make sure he and his siblings aren't bothered by humans again. They hate humans because humans use fuinjutsu and hunted down the Bijuu and sealed them into prisons inside people and used them for power. He hates Konoha because the Shodaime Hokage hunted down and basically kidnapped his siblings and him and sold them to the other villages and tried to make a peace contract. All the bijuu hate humans because they think they're mindless monsters and always attack them but I promised him that I would convince everyone that bijuu aren't monsters" Naruto explained and Hinata felt bad about what she insinuated about the Kyuubi. Kurama talked to Naruto and he asked why he hates all humans so much and Kurama gave the full story of wha happened to him and his siblings.

"Can you tell the Kyuubi I'm sorry" Hinata said, "I didn't know the full story about what happened to the bijuu. If someone did that to me I would be angry at them as well so I feel bad about judging the bijuu like that"

 **"Heat of pure gold, that one"** Kurama said, **"She earned the right to call me by my name Naruto"** and Luffy nodded and said, _"Man Kurama, you had a rough life"_

 **"Not like your a stranger to that Luffy"** Kurama said back to him.

"Kyuubi accepted your apology and also his name is Kurama" Naruto said and Hinata looked surprised, "I can talk to him in my head, he helps me out a lot. It was his idea to try and find you, I was just wandering aimlessly in the forest" and Hinata giggled cutely at that.

"Thank you Kurama-san" Hinata said.

"Ok back to my story. He gave me a special sensing ability and I can sense negative emotions, that's how I found you. Since you have no negative emotions your like a blank dot and I managed to find you using that. One day back in wave I was practicing using my senses and I sensed something weird. It was ancient and very powerful and I felt it calling me somehow and I went to investigate. I reached a cave and went exploring inside it and there was a big archway and I passed through it and I felt something rooting through my brain. Then I reached a big room with an altar and on that altar there was a box with two fruits inside. Behind it there was an inscription and I read it.

Apparently the cave was the lost relics of pirates that used to sail hundreds of years ago and in the ruins there was the last message of Monkey.D Luffy, the 2nd Pirate King. He wrote on the wall that the archway was a test and if it judged you worthy then you were allowed in and a member of the Straw Hat crew. It wasn't your everyday pirates, these guys wouldn't pillage homes and steal gold, well sort of for the last part but they were good guys following their dreams and being free. The archway judged me worthy so I was allowed to eat the two fruits which were very special fruits called devil fruits. If you ate it you would get a special power but you will never be able to swim again because you are cursed by the sea god but the Straw Hat crew managed to remove that. I ate the gomu gomu no mi and the yami yami no mi, normally you can only eat 1 fruit but the yami yami no mi is an exception and you can eat more than one if you eat that. My body is made of rubber"

Naruto said and stretched his cheeks well past normal limits, "I'm a rubber man. Also with the Yami Yami no mi, I control darkness" and flared up dark flames to surround Naruto and Hinata was shocked by this. "Don't worry it wont hurt you, I'm controlling it" and Hinata relaxed and Naruto took the darkness back in and released his cheeks,

"Also there were three swords left in the place and the strongest swordsman of that era used a style called Santoryu and could cut mountains with it and he left me three swords and scrolls on his Santoryu" Naruto said and unsealed his swords, "This is the Shodai Kitetsu, Nidai Kitetsu and Sandai Kitetsu. They are cursed meito but apparently I was worthy, a trap mechanism shot the swords at me and I didn't die so yeah" Naruto said sheepishly and Hinata glared at him, "You nearly died!" she snapped and Naruto let out an "eep!". They looked at each other for a bit and realised the roles have been reversed and laughed.

"Also the chef on the crew Sanji left scrolls describing his kicking fighting style and I learnt from that as well. Also there were instruction scrolls on using the Gomu gomu no mi and Yami yami no mi and a martial art style called Rokushiki and a special power called Haki" Naruto explained, "But the most important item was this hat" Naruto said and grabbed it and showed Hinata. "This hat was worn by Luffy as he became the Pirate King, it's a symbol of dreams and the will to accomplish them and he believed that the next bearer of the hat will accomplish their dreams" he said and put it back on.

"After eating the Gomu gomu no mi, I met Luffy inside my head and I have a ghost pirate inside there as well" Naruto said and again Hinata looked concerned about there being 2 voices in his head, not 1 but 2! "He acts immature and has the mind of a 5 year old but is helpful as well and gives advice like Kurama"

"And that's the whole crazy story. I told the hokage this and he made it a S class secret because if people found out I had all these awesome abilities they might try to kill me before I can learn them all" Naruto said and Hinata was thinking.

"Naruto-kun, what did the devil fruit look like?" Hinata asked.

"Well it looked like a fruit but with a weird swirly pattern" Naruto said as he thought back, "Why?"

Hinata pulled out a fruit from her pouch and it was a strawberry with a swirling pattern, Naruto grew bug eyed and fell back off his rock seat. "Hinata-chan, that's a Devil fruit!" Naruto said in surprise, "How did you find that!"

Hinata looked shocked that this was one of the fruits Naruto ate, "W-we-well I found it growing on a tree, it looked edible to I collected it for later but I was going to throw it away because I thought it was spoiled since I didn't recognise it. Should I eat it?" she asked.

"Well, I don't know" Naruto said, "I have a book that can identify Devil fruits but it's back at my house so I have no idea what fruit that is. If you eat that you could get any random ability, it's the ultimate game of roulette but very rarely does anyone get weaker after eating a fruit. But remember, you won't be able to swim ever again and you can not eat another devil fruit or you will die. If you eat that and then that one bite could cause a lifetime of problems. Also it tastes TERRIBLE! It was the worst thing I ever ate!" Naruto said and turned green as he remembered the fruits he ate. He made a few Kage Bunshins and they raced out of the cave. "Those guys will try to get to my house and find out what fruit that is" Naruto explained.

Hinata nodded and put the fruit back in her pouch, "Then after I know what this is and what does it do then I will decide if I should eat it, is that ok?" she asked and Naruto nodded and said, "Alright!"

They finished eating the crocodiles that Naruto brought back and put out the fire and went back to the cave.

"Hinata-chan I'll ask you again, do you want to help me find Sasuke and take his badge?" Naruto asked, "You could go to the centre tower and finish the exam..." but Hinata cut him off, "If it wasn't for you I would be kidnapped and wouldn't have the badges in the first place! Naruto-kun, I will always stand with you. That's a promise"

Naruto flushed but in the dark it wasn't seen, "Thank you, Hinata. Let's get some sleep, I have clones staying up and watching the place" Naruto said and both of them got comfortable in the cave and fell asleep.

 _"Always stand with me. That makes me feel so much more reassured"_ Naruto thought as he fell asleep.

* * *

As dawn approached both Hinata and Naruto woke up and got ready to leave the cave. Hinata moved the trees and bushes to conceal the entrance and had a few trap sealing tags ready incase someone came in looking for them.

Hinata used her Byakugan to try and find Sasuke and managed to find him. She found that he was knocked out and his chakra reserves were very low and was being treated by Sakura.

"Naruto-kun, I found Sasuke. He's unconscious and under a tree with Sakura. Sasuke has very little chakra but I can sense something...dark...and foul in his body. I don't know what it is but we should be careful" Hinata said.

"Lead the way, Hinata-chan" Naruto said and both of them began tree jumping to Sasuke's location.

* * *

Naruto and Hinata tree hopped towards Sasuke's location. Naruto had his senses active and could sense a large amount of hatred coming out of Sasuke and 3 sources of hatred converging to his location and they moved quickly, when they arrived the saw the sound genins, an incapacitated Sakura, a barely conscious Lee who was about to get hit by Dosu and a still unconscious Sasuke in a clearing.

"LEE!" Naruto yelled and extended his fist back, " **Gomu gomu no PISTOL**!" he yelled and he shot his arm forwards and hit Dosu who blocked it with his bracers but was pushed back.

"N-na-naruto-kun?" Lee said groggily.

"Lee, what the heck happened to you!" Naruto said and looked at Lee and he looked down in disappointment and Naruto figured it out.

"IDIOT!" Naruto yelled, "You used the 8 inner gates!" and Lee nodded. Naruto was ticked, Lee and he learnt a lot as they trained together with Gai and Naruto made friends with Lee since he had the same hard working ethic Naruto had. Lee was one of the few people who knew about Naruto's Black Leg style and Rokushiki but not the full story. Lee was one of Naruto's precious people and Naruto was very ticked off.

Kin who was holding Sakura by the hair and Zaku who had his arm ready to blast people and Dosu who was blown back looked up and saw the blond ninja and Hinata.

"YOU!" Zaku yelled and pointed his arm at Naruto, " **Decapitating Airwaves**!" he yelled and shot pressurised air at Naruto who saw the incoming attack and called " **Soru** " and moved in a blur with Lee out of harms way. Dosu jumped to one side and dodged the attack.

"ZAKU! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME!" Dosu yelled at him.

"Oh walk it off Dosu!" Zaku snapped back at him and turned to Naruto, "One trick ponies are we? Yeah I remember what you said and I'm going to enjoy blasting you to pieces!" he spat at Naruto.

Naruto looked back at them with in a cold fury and growled, "You hurt my friend Bushy-brows and for that I'm going to kick your butts".

Naruto unsealed his swords and got in his Santoryu position. Dosu tried to use his Melody Gauntlet but Kurama just shut off his hearing and sent his chakra to Naruto's ears to heal it and Naruto put his earplugs on Hinata. He turned to Dosu and said, "I'm sorry did you say something?" with a sword in his mouth and Dosu started to get angry at that, his sound bracer had no effect on this guy.

"Heh, what's with the stupid sword stance, you samurai wannabe" Zaku said as he charged his bracer again, "Say goodbye!" he said and took another shot but Naruto just took it this time with **Tekkai**. He put back two swords and had the Nidai Kitetsu in his hand.

"My turn" Naruto said, "Eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind" and walked forwards with one sword and dodged the shuriken, kunai and air blasts Zaku sent at him. "Those six sense organs have senses of good, bad and neutral" and used the sword to slice through shuriken that Dosu threw at him. "Then each of those 18 senses are classified into the pure and defiled states" and stopped, "One life, 36 desires". Naruto grasped his sword and held it to his side and Zaku was preparing another air blast. Naruto called out, " **Ittoryu: 36 Pound Phoenix**!" and slashed his blade in an arc and channeled fuuton chakra through the blade and sent a spiralling red wave of energy at Zaku who was hit by it and blown back. Zaku tried to block it with his arm but failed and one arm took the brunt of the attack and was bloodied and the clothes were in tatters.

"ZAKU!" both Dosu and Kin yelled as Zaku's screams pierced the woods and as the attack faded Zaku was slashed badly and collapsed onto his knees and fainted.

"One attack?" Naruto said with a raised eyebrow, "Weak. I overestimated him" he said in a dull emotionless tone and put his sword back in its sheath and sealed them all again.

"Weak?!" Dosu spat out, "Why you little..." he said angrily and charged at him and intended to hit him with the bracer.

" **Fuuton: Reppusho** " Naruto called and clapped his hands and sent out a powerful gust of wind that blew back Dosu who was struggling to stop and hit a small boulder but managed to stop.

Naruto moved forwards and in a series of backflips towards Dosu, he called out " **Troisieme Hache** " and kicked Dosu in the face repeatedly in a barrage and Dosu was blown back and Naruto's kicks broke the boulder. Dosu collapsed from the kicks but wasn't down for the count yet. Naruto kicked him again in the ribs with his heel, " **Cotelette** " and Dosu hit the ground again and bounced upwards. Naruto did a handstand and got under Dosu and spun twice, each time nailing his back with kicks from his feet and Naruto pushed up and got up behind his back and jumped upwards and got above Dosu and kicked him with both feet on the top of his head, " **Concassé** " and dropped down and did another handstand in front of Dosu. Naruto tucked in his feet and kicked upwards at Dosu's face again with both feet, " **Bouquetiere shot!** " and Dosu was sent upwards and flying a few metres before going to the ground and definitely unconscious.

"Stand down or you'll join your friends" Naruto said threateningly to Kin and had his eyes turn red and slitted. Kin was visibly shaking at Naruto, who took out two of them like it was nothing, too bad she didn't notice Hinata who snuck up behind her and called **"2 Palms"** , **"4 palms"** , **"8 palms"** , **"16 palms"** , **"8 trigrams 32 palms".** Hinata moved gracefully again in a dance and closed 32 major tenketsu's of Kin and she was paralysed. Hinata nodded at Naruto, which was a sign for Naruto to interrogate/terrify Kin.

"Now, I was wondering why you three went to such lengths to get this far" Naruto said as he walked up to Kin. Sakura was on the floor whimpering in pain from her hair being pulled. "You three went to an awfully long distance to get to these three. If you cared about the badges you would have just taken them before we arrived and left but that begs another question, what is your purpose here and who is it for? Bushy-brows is a nice guy with no enemies, Sakura is useless and no one would waste time on her" and Sakura glared at him but didn't have the energy to yell, "So that leaves Sasuke-teme, and he's knocked out with some weird dark thing running through his body. I'm a reasonable guy" Naruto said and stood in front of Kin who was on the floor at his feet. Naruto unsealed his sword and slashed at the ground and the sword imbedded itself into the ground, right next to her neck. **"So talk"** Naruto growled with Kyuubi chakra in his voice.

"We-we we're ordered to kill Sasuke, that's all I know I swear" Kin said fearfully. "By who?" Naruto growled. Kin looked even more scared so Naruto decided to intimidate a bit more. He raised his leg to a 180° and brought his heel straight down on the ground next to Kin and a small crater formed where he kicked. Kin was even more scared and quickly spilled, "Orochimaru-sama!" she yelled but then shut her mouth and fainted.

Naruto turned off the Kyuubi's chakra in his body and his eyes became blue again. His emotion sensing pointed out that Ino, Shikamaru and Choji were hiding in the bushes behind Sakura.

"Well if it isn't the wonder trio" Naruto said with a smile and looked at their direction, "You can come out now!" Naruto said.

 _"Crap! Naruto saw us!"_ Shikamaru thought, _"What the heck happened! Since when would we hide from Naruto of all people! Sigh...this is too troublesome"_ he thought and signalled Ino and Choji to come on out.

"It's three against one and we aren't giving up any badges Naruto" Choji said bravely but was almost wetting his pants in fear and Ino nodded quickly.

"Calm down you three" Naruto said and pulled out his plate number, "I had to hunt our favourite teme and helped Hinata with her badge hunt and she helped me by finding him. I'm not looking for a fight if you aren't" Naruto said and the trio relaxed a bit.

"Then can we have the badges of the sound creeps" Ino asked in a careful voice, "We only need one more badge each and with the sound guys we're done" she said the last part a bit quickly.

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, I only need Sasuke's badge and Hinata-chan has 5 points so we're done" he said and made some Kage Bunshins to find the badges from the sound trio and found their badges and handed them to Shikamaru, they had a bunch more badges that they took from random people but Naruto just took one from each. Shikamaru was careful when he received the badges but managed to get all three badges and let out a sigh.

"Man, Naruto. You're so troublesome, I can't even find the words for it" Shikamaru said and gave each of his team a badge.

"Naruto, what happened to you?" Choji asked, "Your arms stretched, you threw attacks from a blade from a distance, your kicks are like super hits" Choji blabbered but Naruto just laughed and gave a Luffy patented standard answer.

"I drink juice" he said and everyone present (minus Hinata) fell down.

"JUICE! WHAT THE HECK DOES HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING!" Ino yelled and Choji was confused but Shikamaru was thinking, " _Of course he wouldn't reveal anything, it's not like we're friends currently in this portion of the exam. His random answer was to make us underestimate him, man has he been doing this for a while on us and pulled wool over our eyes the whole time. Then there's that Jinchuuriki thing, man what happened to Naruto? Sigh, it's too troublesome to solve"_

After everyone calmed down Naruto sensed two new presences entering the clearing. Hinata tensed as she saw Neji and Tenten enter the clearing.

"LEE!" Tenten exclaimed, "Did you do this!" she snapped at the group.

"Ten-ten. I'm alright, it wasn't them" Lee spat out and did his best to get back up, "They saved me" he managed to choke out and almost collapsed but Naruto **Soru** ed to him and caught him and picked him up and Lee slung his arm across Naruto's shoulder.

"Bushy-brows, don't strain yourself" Naruto said and Lee nodded.

"Naruto, you beat those genin with ease but I barely managed anything" Lee said dejectedly.

"Bushy-brows, in a fight with you and me I would get beat if you go all out" Naruto said and Lee looked at him, "From the blood in your ears I'm guessing that mummy guy messed with your ears so you were off balanced badly. The fact that you could still fight even after barely being able to stand shows just how tough you are" Naruto said with a smile, "I saw his gauntlet and deducted his abilities and placed seals on my ears if I came across him and had them on so I couldn't hear anything from his Gauntlet but you didn't have any way to prepare for that. Take it in a positive way, Bushy-brows. Your alive and you won't make the same mistake again. Get earplugs or something to stuff your ears when you fight Sound ninjas, that's the lesson here so learn from it and get stronger" Naruto said encouragingly and Lee smiled.

"Thanks Naruto-kun" Lee said and Naruto handed him over to Tenten. Who promptly slapped the crud out of Lee for doing something so reckless. Naruto just sweatdropped at this and stayed back from the angry woman and offered a silent prayer for Lee and Luffy and Kurama joined in.

"Hmph, it makes no difference. Once a failure, always a failure. That is Lee's destiny" Neji scoffed at Lee. Naruto decided to get under this guy's skin with his idiot mask mixed with Luffy standard answers.

"WOW So your a fortune teller" Naruto said and **Soru** ed in front of Neji and held out his palm. Neji was not expecting that and almost fell off the tree before composing himself.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING!" Neji snapped at him.

"Hmm...I want you to read my destiny of course" Naruto said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"YOUR AN IDIOT FAILURE AS WELL!" Neji spat at Naruto and got to another branch but Naruto **soru** ed next to him again.

"But you didn't read my palm. I thought you were a fortune teller, so you have small, fragile crystal balls instead?" Naruto asked and everyone started to snicker a bit.

"No I don't have crystal balls. STOP LAUGHING!" he yelled, "I can see plainly that you are nothing but a failure"

"So your a horoscope?" Naruto asked.

"A horoscope?" Neji asked in bewilderment.

"Well I don't know what people measure destiny and BS with so I'm going with horoscope. Nice to meet you" Naruto said with a smile, "Why bother being a ninja, you could sell your small crystal balls to tabloids and predict futures for them. By the way, when I next go to Ichiraku ramen will I buy Pork or Miso ramen?"

"I don't know what ramen your going to eat you thick headed imbecile and I don't care!" Neji said angrily at Naruto and jumped to another tree branch.

"So your a fake and broken horoscope. Well that's too bad, guess we're going to have to shove the fate predictions you spew out back down the toilet it came from" Naruto said with a sad sigh. Lee was laughing his head off and Tenten was barely holding in her laughs while Hinata was laughing really hard at Neji. Neji was really starting to get ticked at Naruto. He rushed at him and Naruto whispered **"Tekkai"** and already asked Kurama in advance to layer his body with Bijuu chakra so he could strengthen his Tenketsu's and body and Luffy gave as much Busoshuku Haki as he could and strengthened Naruto's body.

" **2 Palms** " " **4 Palms** " " **8 Palms** " " **16 Palms** " " **32 Palms** " Neji roared as tried to close Naruto's tenketsus but barely closed them as his body was as hard as iron and Neji's fingers were aching and Kurama reopened any closed tenketsus with a small burst of his chakra. Naruto's body had a red aura around it and expanded it and blew Neji off his feet, he was unbalanced and fell off the tree and hit the ground on his head and his fingers were damaged from trying to hurt Naruto.

"Was that supposed to do something Horoscope?" Naruto looked down at him and asked and Neji seethed while in pain from the lump on his head and the ache on his fingers. He managed to pick himself up, and got to his feet.

"Neji, are you alright?" Tenten asked Neji and he just scoffed and turned away. Mostly to clutch his fingers and head and whimper in pain but wouldn't let anyone else see that.

Naruto got off the tree and landed back in the clearing, "Guess Horoscope had crystal hands, maybe he does have crystal balls after all" Naruto reasoned and Tenten laughed while Neji seethed in anger at being humiliated.

"Tenten, we're leaving" Neji snapped at her and jumped onto a branch on a tree. Tenten turned around to the rest of them and said "Thank you for saving Lee" she said with a small bow.

Naruto just waved at her, "No problem, just take care of Bushy-brows. For all his faults he's way better man than a toilet-mouthed, broken horoscope with small crystal balls" and Tenten and Lee had another good laugh before jumping back to the tree branches.

"SASUKE-KUN, YOU'RE AWAKE!" Sakura yelled and everyone turned around to see Sasuke. Half of his body was covered in black marks and was giving off a purple aura. He was picking himself off the ground and Naruto was overwhelmed by the negative emotions he was outputting.

"What power!" Sasuke said with a smirk. "Let's test it" he said darkly and caught sight of Shikamaru, Choji and Ino. He dashed towards them with his fish raised to punch them but Naruto **Soru** ed back there and caught his fist.

"Maa, maa Sasuke-teme. What did poor team 10 do to you?" Naruto said darkly to Sasuke who grinned even wider. He jumped back and got into a fighting stance.

"Perfect. Dobe, I'm using you as a test dummy for my new power, feel grateful for it" he said and went through hand-signs. **"Katon: Hosenka no jutsu** " he yelled and spat out 10 fireballs at Naruto who was a little disappointed. He could see the faint red outline inside the fireballs and knew Sasuke placed shuriken in them and used the Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Justu that he probably copied from an idiot genin or chunin to multiply them.

Naruto unsealed his Nidai Kitetsu and held it to the side. **"Ittoryu: 36 Pound Phoenix"** he called calmly and channeled fuuton chakra through the blade and created a blast of wind that blew out the fireballs and deflected to shuriken easily.

Sasuke dashed forwards to engage in taijutsu but Naruto dodged his punches with **Kami-e**. It didn't require chakra and needed actual effort to be put in for training so Sasuke with his "Almighty Sharingan" couldn't copy it.

"Are you done yet" Naruto said as Sasuke thrust his fist forward and missed again. Naruto sighed and called out " **Anti-manner Kick course** " and shot his leg up 180° and nailed Sasuke in the jaw. Sasuke spat out a bit of blood and moved back.

"Grr...that was a warm up Dobe and now for the main part. **KATON: HOSENKA NO JUSTU** " he yelled and did the same trick again but shot at least 30 fire balls. Some of them were heading towards Team 10 so Naruto had to act.

" **Gomu gomu no gatling**!" Naruto called and he stretched his fists forwards repeatedly in a blurry, rapid barrage of punches that hit the fireballs and Naruto's hands were a bit burned but Kurama was healing them and had them done in a few seconds giving Naruto smoking fists and a grin while Sasuke was just getting more furious.

"DOBE HOW DID YOU DO THAT! MY SHARINGAN COULDN'T COPY IT" he spat out while Naruto just picked his ears and said, "I do 100 push-ups and sit-ups a day". Man it was great acting like Luffy, your enemy just got angrier and angrier and made more mistakes for you to capitalise on.

Sasuke threw smoke bombs at Naruto who was taken by surprise and Sasuke used that moment to get behind Naruto. Naruto was pushed down and Sasuke had one foot on his back and was pulling on Naruto's arms.

"I'm going to rip your arms off!" he growled with an evil smile while Naruto just smirked. Sasuke tried to apply pressure but Naruto's arms just stretched and kept stretching. Naruto used the moment when Sasuke hesitated in surprise to his advantage and turned around and twisted his arms wrapped them around Sasuke.

" **Gomu gomu no hammer**!" Naruto said as he puled his arms in an arc and let his arms untwist and hammered Sasuke into the ground.

Sasuke was seething in anger and the black marks covered his body and he felt another increase in power, something Naruto noted as well.

 **"Kit, if he's going to keep boosting himself then I may as well do the same. End it quickly before the mark thing makes him too strong and makes him go on a rampage and hurt the bystanders"** Kurama said.

Shikamaru and Choji snapped out of their daze from being attacked by a mad Sasuke and tried their best to stop him.

" **Baika no jutsu** " Choji yelled and increased the size of his arm and held down Sasuke who was struggling to get loose. Shikamaru took that as the signal to get ready and stretched his shadow to catch Sasuke's and called, " **Kagemane no jutsu** " and Sasuke couldn't move his body. Hinata was going in to close his tenketsus and Tenten threw several shuriken and kunai at Sasuke but a wave of purple chakra blew her back and the shuriken and kunai, broke Shikamaru's jutsu and Choji was forced to let go.

"Maa, maa Sasuke-teme" Naruto said and everyone looked at him, **"I'm your opponent"** he growled and Kurama channeled his chakra to Naruto's body and his facial features changed. The whisker marks became more defined and his eyes turned red and slitted, his nails grew longer and almost became claws and his teeth became fangs. All in all, he looked like a beast. Everyone, including Sasuke, was visibly freaked out at Naruto's new appearance and took a step back. Naruto channeled KI from Kurama and Sasuke was rooted in place.

" **Katon: Ryuuka no Justu** " Sasuke yelled and let out a large stream of fire at Naruto who just unsealed the Nidai kitetsu, channeled wind chakra and slashed down to part the fire and the flamethrower split into two segments and Naruto was standing completely unharmed when Sasuke stopped the jutsu.

 **"Same old, same old Sasuke-teme"** Naruto growled and dashed towards Sasuke with his sword raised and appeared behind him and sheathed his sword and called out **"Ittoryu Iai: Shishi Sonson"** and a medium size cut appeared across his chest. He growled in anger at being hit and got to his feet and went through hand-seals, " **Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu**!" he called and sent a large fireball at Naruto but Naruto stopped that again with ease, " **Gomu gomu no iron bazooka**!" he called as he shot his arms backwards and used tekkai to strengthen his muscles and brought them right at the centre of the fireball and Naruto pierced it and hit Sasuke who was blown back.

Naruto used this opportunity and called out " **Soru** " and rushed in front of Sasuke and called, **"Extra Hachis"** and sent a barrage of kicks at Sasuke's stomach to the point where it became a blur and Sasuke had the wind knocked out of him from that. Sasuke collapsed onto his feet and was struggling to hang on. Naruto stretched his arm back and shot it forwards and hit Sasuke's face and called, **"Gomu gomu no pistol"** and Sasuke was knocked out for good.

"Thanks for the badge, teme. Looks like you can have the honour of donating it to the great Naruto Uzumaki-sama" Naruto said with a smirk and took his badge. He said it in the exact same aristocratic tone that Sasuke uses when he demands something to add salt to the injury and Naruto got ready to leave.

"NARUTO HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO SASUKE-KUN! GIVE HIM THE BADGE BACK AND GIVE HIM YOURS TO MAKE UP FOR HURTING HIM AND TAKE EVERYONE ELSES BADGE FOR ME AND SASUKE FOR EXTRA CREDIT!" Sakura yelled as she drew a kunai and got into sloppy fighting stance.

Naruto was trying not to laugh at how stupid the fangirl was, Kurama and Luffy were on the floor laughing though.

Ino just looked at Sakura like she was a mad woman.

Shikamaru wondered how she got the top marks for Kunoichi and be this stupid.

Choji was concerned over her mental state to pick a fight with Naruto who just beat the crud out of 4 ninjas and didn't look winded in the slightest.

Neji just scoffed and mumbled that it was her fate to be a moron.

Tenten was just miffed at this embarrassment to all women trying to become ninjas.

Lee wondered what he saw in Sakura and snapped back to reality.

Hinata wondered if Sakura had a few bolts loose upstairs.

Sasuke was unconscious and no one wanted his opinion.

"And why should I do that?" Naruto said with a smirk and channeled Kurama's chakra to his eyes and face to intimidate Sakura, she was going to charge at him but was terrified of Naruto. Her brain was trying to comprehend what happened to Naruto, the old one would have just listened to her every word but the new one was...evil, in her little fantasy world.

Naruto sent out a pulse of KI and that stopped Sakura easily and Naruto removed Kurama's chakra from his face, it wasn't good to overuse it or it could be damaging to his body, even with his resilient rubber one.

"Hinata-chan" Naruto said and offered her a hand, "Shall we leave to the tower?" he said and Hinata nodded and took his hand. He turned to Team 10, "You guys wanna tag along?" he asked and Shikamaru weighed the pros and cons. Pros: Naruto's definitely strong enough to fight any incoming threats, Cons: He scares the holy heck out of everyone. Shikamaru decided to take the gamble and nodded and Ino and Choji also nodded after Shikamaru agreed. He turned to Tenten and Lee, "Since Bushy-brows is safe, you guys can take him" he said and Lee and Tenten nodded while Neji ignored him. Shikamaru saw the strategic reason because a large party filled with badges is just screaming ambush us and try to take our badges, best to play safe.

"Bye" Naruto said and jumped up to the trees with Hinata and Team 10 and they tree jumped away.

* * *

After about 5 minutes Hinata asked Naruto a question, "N-Naruto-kun do you know where your going?" she asked and Naruto almost fell off the trees.

"I thought you were guiding us" he said to Hinata in a fluster and Team 10 just groaned. Well Naruto is still Naruto, some things you just can't change. Luffy's fears were well founded as Naruto's sense of direction was becoming as warped as Zoro's.

Hinata blushed and nodded and called, "Byakugan" and activated her eyes.

"We're going the opposite direction to the tower" she said and Naruto just whistled while Team 10 glared at him. "If we follow this way, we should be at the tower by nightfall" she said and pointed in a direction.

"That's great Hinata. How long can you keep up you byakugan" Shikamaru asked.

"3 hours and that would be it for the day but it would take us over 6 to reach the Tower" she said to Shikamaru.

"How about in bursts?" he asked.

"I can keep it up for 2 hours then rest for 30 minutes and use it again for 1 hour and rest again and use it for half an hour and that's it" she said to Shikamaru's question.

"I can have Kage Bunshins surround us and form a perimeter. If one of them sees something or is taken out I would know" Naruto said helpfully to Shikamaru.

He thought about it and came up with a plan, "For the first 3 hours we rely on Naruto and his Kage Bunshins and stop every 15 minutes to check with the byakugan. After we get past the 5 hour mark, Hinata I want your Byakugan on full time because that is the hot zone" Shikamaru said.

"Hot zone?" Hinata asked.

"Hot zone. What would everyone who doesn't have a badge yet or lost theirs be doing right now?" Shikamaru asked.

"Trying to get badges" Ino replied.

"Precisely but in this forest, unless your a sensor or have some way of finding candidates you would be stuck wandering aimlessly in a ravenous wild animal filled jungle" Shikamaru said and Naruto just whistled when Hinata looked at him. Come on, he was fine now and that's what matters. Luffy was worried he might be turning into Zoro with his impaired sense of direction.

Shikamaru ignored this and went on, "There's one surefire way to get candidates and that's at the tower" he said, "That's where everyone with confirmed badge is heading so they would be trying to catch candidates in an ambush or trap and take their badge and run along to the nearby tower".

"Furthermore it's near the end of day 4. Candidates would be swarming there now and getting ready to set up traps for people coming in on day 5 and the convergence of all the candidates gives a different problem. Team ups" he said, "We're teamed up because there's strength in numbers and we have a better chance of making it safely to the tower together than apart but candidates from the same villages would be doing the same thing as us and we could be walking into an ambush of more than 10 candidates, if what that guy Kabuto said with his cards are true" as he thought back to the image of Kabuto's cards showing the distribution of ninjas from each village.

"That's sounds good Shikamaru" Choji said and Hinata nodded. Naruto made 10 Kage Bunshins. "Ok they formed a perimeter about 7 metres apart from us" he said and Hinata used her byakugan to see if any threats were nearby and she shook her head and Shikamaru said, "Alright, lets go!" and they tree jumped towards the tower.

* * *

The tree jumped continuously without too many distractions, not counting the giant spiders who swore vengeance on Naruto and had to beat up about 10 of them before they would leave him alone. They were travelling for 4 hours and Shikamaru warned them to get ready for a battle since they were in the thick of it now. Naruto was rearing for a fight and a few ninjas from different villages tried to get them but Hinata and Naruto had already seen their ambushes and Shikamaru couldn't find a way to navigate through the traps set so he had Hinata navigate them through the ninjas with the lowest chakra levels, hence the weaker and more tired ones. Naruto wanted to complain but Team 10 and Hinata took first priority over a good fight.

Then they came to a stop at 5 hours and 15 minutes.

"Shikamaru, the only path left is with 6 ninjas but their chakra levels are low so a few hits should knock them out but they are forming a blockade with a lot of traps" Hinata said and Shikamaru nodded.

"Shikamaru, I could use Nikudan Sensha (human boulder jutsu) and bowl them over easily" Choji said and Shikamaru thought about it.

"You could but you would be heard and they would easily dodge, you can't go fast enough to bowl them over and you would be heard or seen mefore you hit them" he said regretfully.

Naruto heard that and got a grin and said, "That may not be the case" he said with a smile and Shikamaru recognised that grin as his big prank grin, that was the grin he had when he had an idea for a big prank like painting the Hokage Monument in borad daylight and getting away with it.

* * *

"This is a stupid idea" Shikamaru said but they were running with it.

Naruto had stretched his arms and grabbed to thick tree trunks and Choji was rolling as a large ball at Naruto who was letting himself be pushed back. Choji started to slow down as the elastic force from Naruto was increasing and stopped him.

" **Gomu gomu no** " Naruto called out with a grin and Choji finished for him " **Nikudan Sensha**!" and Naruto shot him forwards like a slingshot, only instead of launching a pebble it was a cannonball.

Choji was shot forwards and was rolling at four times his regular speed and the unsuspecting ninjas heard a rumbling noise.

"Hey do you hear that?" one asked.

"Something's coming. Get ready for a fight!" another said tiredly.

Choji charged right in through the traps and blockade and the genins nearly wet themselves and about 6 of them were bowled over while the other two just screamed ran...into their own traps but if you set traps in front of you and don't give yourself an escape route what do you think is going to happen.

Naruto and the rest managed to catch up to Choji who had swirls in his eyes and trying not to puke from dizziness.

"Did we win?" he asked groggily and Naruto just nodded.

"Strike for Konoha" Naruto said, "Again?" he asked but Choji was turning green and vomited in a bush, "Maybe not".

"All right, let's wait a bit for Choji to..." Shikamaru said as he looked at Choji and tried to find the right words, "Stop puking and we can get moving". Naruto was patting Choji in the back as a fresh wave of puke came out, Naruto just grimaced and tried not to focus on that too much.

* * *

The team continued with minimal hinderances from Hinata's byakugan and Naruto's kage bunshins and they managed to reach the tower.

"The tower! We made it!" Shikamaru said and the 5 of them rushed towards it but Naruto's negative emotion senses went into overload and right before they could get in, Naruto could feel an attack coming and stopped immediately.

"Guys get back!" Naruto yelled and they stopped. A second later, where they would have stood giant sand spikes came out of the gound and went about 3 metres high. They all paled at the sight of that and behind them they saw something even scarier.

Gaara was walking towards them with an emotionless face and Shikamaru, Ino, Choji and Hinata paled at that.

"I've been waiting here for a while now" he said emotionlessly, "What took so long?"

Shikamaru was struggling to think of a way out of this, " _Darn it, we were so close. It's the psychopath Asuma warned we must never fight at all costs. Great, just great"_.

"Naruto Uzumaki. I've been waiting for you" he said and pulled out a plate number and Naruto paled when he saw what it was, 42. _"Aw c'mon, couldn't I have any random person but no it had to be the psycho"._

"Guys, it's me he wants. You guys go through and I'll catch up" Naruto said and everyone looked at him in shock.

"NO! Naruto-kun I will not leave your side. I refuse to choose a stupid chunin placement over my friends" Hinata said stubbornly. Naruto walked up to her and whispered, "I know you won't, that's why I won't make you choose" and he chopped her on the neck and she became unconscious. He handed Hinata to Shikamaru and he nodded in understanding. Gaara lowered the sand spikes and let them continue into the tower while Naruto stayed behind.

Shikamaru looked back at Naruto and realised this was what Asuma talked to him about. Sacrificing oneself to save the rest. If anyone ever did that, Asuma told him to never forget them. It's the least the ones who were saved can do to honour a noble sacrifice.

* * *

"I have a favour" Naruto said, "Can we move this fight away from the tower?" If Hinata comes to then she would run out of the tower and get caught in the crossfire, also if he's going to go all out then its better if less people know about the yami yami no mi.

"Are you ashamed of who you are?" Gaara asked, "Do you think they will fear you if they know what you are? What we are?" he said and Naruto realised he was talking about the bijuu. Naruto decided to play his game, how else is he going to do this.

"There is value in information" Naruto said and Gaara looked at him, "The less they know about me, the more others fear me. Fear of the unknown is the base of all fear" and Gaara smiled, or more of a demonic grin.

"Very well" he said and the two of them walked towards a clearing about 25 minutes away. Naruto kept his guard up the whole time but Gaara didn't even respond.

After they reached it they got into a battle stance.

* * *

" **Gomu gomu no pistol** " Naruto yelled and shot his fist back and sent it right at Gaara who just blocked it lazily with sand. Naruto retracted his fist and charged at Gaara, sand attacks came out of the ground and seveal spikes came up but Naruto deftly dodged each one and called out " **Soru!** " and dashed towards Gaara and unsealed his swords and got in his three sword stance.

" **Santoryu: Oni Giri** " he yelled and slashed at Gaara who was almost taken by surprise but the sand, on instinct, shielded Gaara and Naruto had to step back.

"My turn" he said and the sand quickly converged on Naruto and before he knew it he was covered in sand.

" **Sand coffin** " he said and closed his hand and called, " **Sand burial** " and the sand converged onto Naruto.

"Disappointing" he said.

"I'll try harder then" a voice came out from the lump of sand and Gaara released his hold on the sand and an unharmed Naruto came out of it.

"How?" he asked and Naruto demonstrated, "I'm made of rubber, it sure comes in handy" and he stretched his cheeks beyond normal limits.

" **Sand shuriken** " he called out and several shuriken made of sand were flying at Naruto but Naruto easily cut through them with his swords.

" **Ittoryu: 36 pound phoenix** " Naruto yelled and sliced his sword through the air and a red wave was sent at Gaara and the sand barely managed to defend him from that. Gaara manifested a large fist with Sand and sent it at Naruto lazily. Naruto saw it and called, "Anti-manner kick course" and kicked his leg at 180° and stopped the attack.

He then created several spikes from sand and shot the ends at Naruto who was forced to dodge quickly with Kami-e. He barely managed to dodge them and Gaara was looking bored. Naruto called out " **Santoryu: Tatsumaki** " he yelled and spun with his swords and created a small tornado, nothing compared to Zoro's full power but enough to clear the sand spikes.

Kurama saw that Naruto was in a bind and channeled his chakra into Naruto's body and Naruto gained his demonic appearance and Gaara smirked. "Finally" he said with a cruel smile. Naruto tried to rush at him once more but was easily repelled by a wall of sand that manifested in front of Gaara and Naruto tried to kick through it but to no avail. The shield suddenly sprouted spikes and Naruto had to dodge to avoid getting skewered. Gaara launched the spikes at Naruto who managed to slice through them with " **Santoryu: Oni Giri** " but still couldn't get close to Gaara. He sheathed his swords and stretched his arms back.

" **Gomu gomu no Bazooka**!" he yelled and shot his arms at Gaara's sand shield but his arms didn't fully penetrate and was stuck in the sand. Gaara changed to shape of the sand into cuffs and linked it to himself. Naruto tried to tug on his arms and flip Gaara but Gaara's control over sand trumped his strength and he released his hold on the sand and Naruto's arms came back to him with a large force and the recoil threw Naruto off balance.

Gaara sent a wave of sand shuriken at him again at that moment and Naruto was hit by the sand shuriken barrage. His clothes were torn and was bleeding on his arms and legs. Gaara avoided any vital organs on purpose. Naruto was hurt but managed to hold it back while Kurama did his best to heal the injuries.

" **Sand shower** " he called out and Naruto looked up to see a large amount of sand hovering over his head, the sand shot out large spiky lumps at Naruto who quickly got ready to counter. Naruto got on his back and kicked upwards.

" **Gomu gomu no Stamp Gatling**!" he called and his feet became a blur and it became a rapid, flurry of kicks at the sand and broke it up into sand again, which Gaara drew back to his side and Naruto got a bit more distance from him.

Gaara created two massive hands from the sand and tried to grab Naruto with it but Naruto saw the opportunity. He called out, "Fuuton: Reppusho" and clapped his hands as hard as he could and with Kurama's chakra it turned into a huge gust of wind that took Gaara by surprise. The hands dispelled and went back to Gaara and Naruto took this as his chance to attack and unsheathed his swords and twirled the two of them.

" **Ichidai Sanzen: Sanzen Sekai**!" and rushed at Gaara. The blades stopped only 30 centimetres away from Gaara from sand again grabbing Naruto's arms and again threw him back. The rest of the sand went to Gaara's body and covered him from head to toe. When the sand came down he looked the same.

"You would be the first to break my sand armour" he said in an even tone, "No wonder mother told me to kill you" and Gaara got ready again.

 _"I can't get close enough to hit him and I don't have many long range techniques. I guess all that's left is darkness"_ Naruto thought, _"Well there's no harm in asking if he can keep it a secret. It's not like I can do anything else!"_

"Can I ask a question?" Naruto asked and sheathed his swords, Gaara was annoyed that the fight was interrupted but nodded, "I want to go all out but I would prefer if people don't know this side of my power, if they did then everyone would try to kill me. Can you keep this to yourself?"

Gaara was surprised at that comment but he could relate to Naruto, people tried to kill him since he was a child and it was simple. If he told others about the power then someone else may take away the one mother wants to kill and that is unacceptable. He nodded in agreement, "If others try to kill you before I can and take away the blood of the one mother wants then I will keep it secret" he said monotonously.

 _"This is a big risk but there are no other options"_ Naruto thought.

 **"You've already used too much of my power. Any more and it would be damaging to your body and you would lose control"** Kurama said and Luffy nodded in agreement.

Naruto released waves of darkness from his body and took Gaara by surprise. He created a platform of sand and got out of the way before the darkness reached him. Gaara caught Naruto by surprise again and Naruto was stuck in a sand coffin.

 _"If he squeezes now I'm dead!"_ Naruto thought.

"How are you doing this?" Gaara asked.

"I control darkness to my will" Naruto said and Gaara was shocked but even more excited.

"Excellent. You will be the one to validate my existence" he said and Naruto had an idea.

"What do you mean validate my existence?" Naruto asked.

"Simple, by killing you others will know of me and fear my existence" he said darkly.

"How would people do that? It's only the two of us and if you kill me with no one will know and your existence will cease to be" Naruto said and Gaara paled in fear at the last words.

"Then what do you suggest?" he said angrily.

"Fight me at the final stage where the world will be watching" Naruto replied back. Gaara heard those words and seemed like he was struggling with himself and clutched his head in pain. After a few seconds he snapped out of it and addressed Naruto, "Your point is true and mother agrees. Mother wants to humiliate Kyuubi to the view of the world. I slaughtered several people and have more than enough badges so your's in unnecessary" he said and drew back his sand. Naruto let out a sigh inwardly that it worked. "Get stronger, I didn't even sweat from this" he added and shunshined away with sand.

Naruto realised what it felt on the other end of a one-sided beat down and felt disappointed with himself. _"I barely made a scratch on him. Damn it! I'm so weak!"_ he thought.

 _"SHUT UP"_ Luffy yelled and took Naruto and Kurama by surprise.

 _"Naruto, I looked through your memories and you are anything but weak so never think that about yourself. You lost this fight, everyone loses fights. I lost a lot of fights when I tried to become the Pirate King. But losing happens, you gave all you could but are you going to back down now or jump back up and fight him again! I fought Crocodile, a guy who could control sand, and lost just like this on my first go. Heck my loss was even worse than this, but I survived. I was even more determined to beat Crocodile, you want to know why"_ he yelled and drew a breath.

 _"TO PROTECT MY NAKAMA!_ " he yelled again. _"That Gaara creep is going kill anyone he comes across so are you going to just sit here and mope while he does that or get back up and fight. If you go down fighting then that's that. No regrets about it! So go out there and give it 100% and never doubt your strength or your attacks will be crappy and weak if you have no conviction behind it! MAN UP NARUTO!"_

Luffy's words filled Naruto with a new strength, as if it lit a fire inside him. " _Protect my nakama. Your right Luffy, I have to get stronger and beat him. That psycho is going to try and kill my friends and me. If I just sit here then I lose everything important to me. I WILL GET STRONGER!"_ he thought and yelled out that last part out loud.

Naruto raced back to the tower filled with a fire to protect everyone precious to him.

* * *

Inside Naruto's mind.

 **"Luffy, wow"** Kurama said with a smile at his words, **"That actually was a great speech"**

 _"Naruto is a great kid with a lot of potential and a good heart. A lot like me when I was young and even a lot like me right now. He may act all smart and I don't but his ideals are like mine. We both will give everything to protect our nakama. He just needed to remember it again, that inner flame of willpower that gives him his real strength. A true Will of D!"_ Luffy said.

 **"Man, that reminded me of that will of fire stuff Hashirama used to go on about to his wife. He said something about it giving shinobi the strength to continue fighting against all odds and defending the village they love, cherish, and believe in just like their predecessors, almost like a family or something like that"** Kurama said.

 _"Shishishishi!"_ Luffy laughed with a grin, _"If that's the will of fire then Naruto's spirit is like an inferno compared to that!"_

 **"Yeah that's true"** Kurama said, **"That inferno would be near impossible to put out"**

 _"I had someone precious to me to look up to and when I lost him, I almost lost my flame as well but a friend saved it"_ Luffy said seriously and Kurama looked at him, _"Guess it's up to us to keep his flame running. Accepting defeat and loss is especially hard but knowing the pain and enduring it makes one tougher. I will always help him keep his flame going, maybe thats why I'm here in the first place."_

 **"Heh, and what should I do. Count sheep and go to bed?"** Kurama scoffed, **"I light entire forests with a breath! I'll help keep the kits will of fire up and running"**

 _"Yeah"_ Luffy said and fist-bumped Kurama.

Naruto heard the two of them talking and almost cried and thought "Thank you" in a sniffled tone to the two of them. With a new will of fire Naruto went into the tower.

* * *

Hiruzen was cranky and ticked. His plan worked to a part but he was so close.

 _"Darn it! We had him and that slippery snake got through my fingers again!"_ he thought angrily.

The plan was working perfectly at the start but locating Orochimaru was extremely difficult when he was decreasing his chakra levels to avoid detection. They eventually found him but it was too late. Orochimaru already put a curse mark on Sasuke.

Hiruzen cornered him finally and nearly managed to put him down but that was not the case. Jiraiya developed a seal just for Orochimaru to torture him before they end him and Hiruzen managed to hit him with it. The seal would affect the body's flow of chakra and completely fry his chakra pathways in his arms but at the very last minute his lackey Kabuto managed to find him and reverse summon him.

 _"I can't see how he is going to invade anything now. The chakra pathways in his arms are done for"_ he thought, _"Knowing him, he will still make Suna invade for the heck of it so we still need to be ready"._

Hiruzen gathered himself and got ready for the final task of the chunin exams, after all it could decide the fate of Konoha.

* * *

"CURSE YOU SENSEI!" Orochimaru yelled inside Ryuuchi cave. It was a godsend miracle that he managed to escape from Hiruzen's clutches, how the heck did he know about his presence. Then after being debriefed at what happened to Kabuto, he was even more ticked at him.

 _"I really want to kill him"_ he thought angrily since the whole plan was ruined because Konoha saw through Kabuto's identity. But there were no medic ninjas that Orochimaru knew that could match Kabuto's skill, save for Tsunade but she's useless with her blood fear.

 _"I can't get Suna to back away from the invasion or they will get suspicious of me"_ he thought as he was posing as the Kazekage and if he backs away then he will have the whole of Suna gunning for him. Luckily since it was only his arms gone he could use sealless jutsu but only a mud clone could be made and the substitution jutsu.

 _"I'll use a mud clone to go to the exams and when Suna invades Konoha, hopefully they get slaughtered and I'll be safe from them"_ he thought as he was sitting on his chair in Ryuuchi cave. Kabuto was already working on cures for his arms but it would take atleast over a month minimum to identify the seal and what it did.

 _"Curse you sensei!"_ he thought again bitterly, as it appeared that Konoha would stand tall again.

 _ **AND DONE! IT TOOK A WHILE BUT I GOT IT DONE EVENTUALLY. IT'S HARD TO WRITE TWO STORIES AT ONCE SO I'M DOING THE BEST I CAN AND I REALLY AM STARTING TO LIKE MY POKEMON STORY SO I'M DOING MY BEST TO BALANCE. NEXT UP IS THE PRELIMINARY ROUNDS AND HINATA'S DEVIL FRUIT IS BETWEEN HANA HANA NO MI AND MERO MERO NO MI. A POLL WILL GO UP TO DECIDE WHICH ONE HINATA WILL GET. IF YOU SEE GRAMMATICAL MISTAKES I'M SORRY AND I WOULD APPRECIATE IT IF PEOPLE POINT IT OUT SO I CAN CORRECT IT. THANK YOU FOR READING AND BYE!**_


	7. Abandoned, sorry

I honestly hate myself for doing this, but I don't really have another option.

Life keeps getting busier and busier since Medical School is really demanding, leaving almost no time for me to write, and this is just first year! I thought I could manage my time to get time to write, but on top of studies, coursework and more, I just can't.

So it's with a heavy heart that I have to put up abandoned signs on these stories. Reading back over them reminds me of how I started out, just trying to learn English better for uni, and it's come a long way. But now like most things in life, we have to put them behind us.

Abandoned Stories are:

The Dark Rubber Ninja - no real plans  
Small Changes - no real plans  
Sword Art Online - Black Storm - small plan  
Path to Pirate King - no real plan + a little prewritten part  
Chronicles of Gohan DxD - detailed plan + some prewritten parts  
Fairy of the Zoldycks - detailed plan

If you want to adopt it, then just PM me and I'll send over the docs for these stories so you can put it up. I also wrote out plans for each story and can also send them, but I guess if you want to do your own thing then it's all yours. I'll still keep the originals up here, if anyone wants to read them but know that I'm probably not going to update unless a miracle happens, and I doubt it will.

I'll still try to update and work on:

Beyond the Limits of Darkness and Light  
Harry Uchiha Peverell

And maybe something new as well, because those stories I remembered putting a lot of work into, and I still hope to be able to update it at some point but I'm afraid it's goodbye for the other stories.

Sorry to anyone who was a fan of these stories, and I hope that any of you reading these stories and are a fan of them will adopt them.


End file.
